Grow. Food. Love.

Bambi's Dad Died So You Can Make These Burgers, Burgers

2012-02-01T13:31:00.000-05:00

I have never in my life understood the southern man's love of going out into the woods covering themselves in deer urine scent and camoflague clothing in orer to stalk and shoot animals.I have also never really enjoyed eating the meat of their resulting bounty and I really hated preparing the stuff. Something about the blood from the fresh processed wild game turned my stomach and I just couldn't do it.

Well maybe my new found heart of stone cold demeanor has changed something in me, because last night I found some ground venison in the freezer and decided to cook it up. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and figured I would just throw the burgers in the freezer for the little carnivore in the house. well the more I cooked and the more I smelled and the more I looked at the resulting lovely burger patties pan frying themselves to a nice brown color...the more I thought I should try one.

I tried a bite...it was the best burger (next to my asian turkey burgers) I've ever made at home. Seriously delicious. I've never added yogurt to a burger-but I think this might be a secret ingredient to a juicy amazing tasting burger.

Here's the recipe:

1 pound ground venison
2 tbsp plain fat free yogurt
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 small jalapeno diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients, shape into patties and pan fry in a hot skillet until no longer pink on the inside.

Use What I've Got Meal Plan

2009-08-06T10:00:00.003-04:00

I haven't done a real meal plan in awhile...everything has been haphazard and anti-planned. Its thrown me off my eating plan and everything else so I'm trying to get back on track again.

So to use what we've got on hand this weekend I'm making this:

Cheerio Breakfast Cookies

Carne Adovado with Rice

Layered Eggplant Casserole

Thai Fish Lettuce Wraps

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Garden Stuff...

2009-07-29T10:14:00.004-04:00

Wow it has been months since I logged in and posted...as usual I went through one of my bored with the Internet, cooking, gardening, really just bored with life in general slumps. I kept at the garden though-Its going good-but SLOW. Next year I really think I might just go ahead and plant from seedlings instead of seed to speed the process up. My coworkers have been bringing in bags of cucumbers, tomatoes and summer squash to share and my plants are just now starting to form their veggies.

The early rains were great for the garden but then came the very very hot and dry June which was stressful on the garden. Even with regular watering the plants were looking kind of sad.

The cucumbers got a strange disease and I had to remove most of the plants. there are about 8 left though and they look like they might be trying to produce healthy disease free cucumbers now.

The onions are coming right along and should be ready by fall.

I've yet to pick any radishes-but I've got a couple good plants from the seed pack.

The spinach is nice...I've been pinching back leaves and harvesting leaves for salads pretty much every other day now. I've got about 5 decent spinach plants.

The lettuce is slow. Very slow...but lettuce doesn't like hot weather at all. It might start to do well late September -early October.

The peppers aren't doing anything at all. Weird-they were the biggest producer last year.

The tomato plants are doing great. I've got a bunch of green tomatoes and lots of flowers so they should give us plenty of yellow and red tomatoes this year.

Garden Update: 4 weeks

2009-05-20T15:18:00.004-04:00

(Tomato plant)

I am a little late in posting this as these pics were taken last week Thursday...but you get the idea. We are one month in the ground now and things are growing nicely.

The garden is more shaded than I had thought it was going to be. The trees in the woods have really gotten full with leaves and they are keeping the garden out of full sun for most of the early part of the day. I am thinking about taking a saw and hacking off a few of the larger branches.

Anyway...here's how things look as of last week Thursday:

Peppers and Cucumbers...

Onions and Lettuce...

Spinach and Radishes...

I'm getting ready to go ahead and plant some zucchini and summer squash where the cabbage and broccoli shriveled up and died. I also think I might throw some yellow watermelon seed out alongside the garden and see how it does. We were able to throw seed out at work last year and it grew some nice watermelon without us doing a thing.

Garden Update 2009: 3 weeks

2009-05-07T10:44:00.013-04:00

Today is the 3 week mark for the seedlings (and some seed) we put out in the garden. The rains have been kind to the plants and are really helping them grow rather nicely. Everything is growing and looking great except the broccoli, cabbage and brussel sprouts...they have bit the dust. But-they were from old seed packets so maybe that was the problem. Maybe I will plant a row of squash in their place.

I've really got to get out there and start pinching off some leaves tonight in order to encourage more growth from the plants. I'll need to make sure I pick up some cages for the tomato plants soon as well. The herb wheel will be started in a couple of weeks from plants. I'm just going to pick up some seedlings from the nursery and plant them.

Peppers, Week 3 (and some grass sprouting up from the seed the husband threw out last weekend):

Spinach, Week 3:

Radishes, Week 3:

Tomatoes, Week 3:

Cucumbers, Week 3:

English Muffin Failure

2009-05-04T09:30:00.003-04:00

I was flipping through my food Network All Stars cookbook the other day and found a recipe for homemade English Muffins. YAY! I love English Muffins and have been using them instead of bread for my tuna and jalapeno sandwiches at lunch everyday. This recipe should be a great way to save money-plus have some homemade muffins stashed in the freezer for whenever I want them.

Well-I had total English Muffin failure. I had apparently skimmed right past the part about needing metal rings to make the things until the moment I actually went to make them. Hell-I surely don't have any metal rings. Alton suggest using tuna cans with both the tops and bottoms removed as a good substitute. I thought I would be in the clear because I definitely have tuna cans I can open up. Only problem there was that the cans had to have both a crimped top and bottom-mine did not-so there was no way to remove the bottom.

I figured I'd try to make one inside the tuns can with just the top removed and it ALMOST worked-but not quite...so I just decided to throw the batter on the griddle like pancakes so as not to waste it all.

I WILL make these again because I can tell if you have the metal rings/tuna cans this is pretty easy and really inexpensive to make and they taste lovely.

Alton Brown's English Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray

Special equipment: electric griddle, 3-inch metal rings, see Cook's Note*

Directions

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.
Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve.

*Cook's Note: Small tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed work well for metal rings.

Mango Limeade Popsicles

2009-05-02T20:46:00.003-04:00

Red and I had to make a quick run to the store this morning to pick up some movies from the Redbox and some movie snacks. While I was there I caught a glimpse of some popsicle molds on an endcap for $1.00. That was inspiration enough for me. I knew Red would enjoy making them, he loves to do anything that involves the blender. I picked up a can of frozen limeade concentrate to curb the sour craving I had going.

I've got a freezer full of frozen fruits that we usually use for smoothies. Red's favorite are the mangoes. He often times just pulls the bag out of the freezer and snacks on a few frozen mango pieces. I thought at first I'd throw some strawberries in with the limeade-but then figured why not try mango.

I didn't measure the amounts so there is no real recipe-but really this is going to hard to screw up anyway.

Here's what we did:

1. Make a pitcher of limeade. Pour about two cups into a blender.

2. Roughly dice up some frozen mango pieces. Add to blender.

3. Puree the frozen mango pieces into the limeade.

4. Pour mango lime mixture into popsicle molds.

5. Place in freezer for a couple of hours to set.

6. Run some warm water over outside of mold to help remove popsicles when you are ready to eat.

This made about 8 popsicles.

These were so sour and refreshing. I can't wait to make a different combo tomorrow. I'm thinking adding some real lime zest and maybe even a touch of ice cream in the middle would be super good too.

2009 Garden Update: 10 Days In the Ground

2009-04-27T10:09:00.003-04:00

So it has been ten days since I put seeds and seedlings in the ground and so far so good! Everything has either grown a bit or started to come up. We had a rough few days of very cold temps, lots of wind and then finally quarter sized hail one day but it looks like the little plants have battled through and are going to do just fine.

Here's some snaps of the seedlings at ten days in:

Tomato plant

Lettuce seedlings

Spinach

Radishes

Cucumbers

Peppers

Yesterday I added some plant food and raked into the top inch or so of the soil. I also have some cabbage, broccoli, brussels and onions in there. The cabbage, broccoli and brussels are real iffy right about now-they just aren't looking so great-but we will see if they hold on or not. I transplanted them as seedlings from a jiffy tray I had started inside the house. So maybe something didn't go over so well in the transplant? Not sure.

The onion sprouts are simply too little to photograph.

I'd really like to dig up another plot beside this one and get some zucchini, squash and potatoes going in that plot.

Protein Packed Salad and Planning Ahead

2009-04-23T10:30:00.006-04:00

I've been sticking to my guns lately-working out, eating healthy, staying off the sauce (coffee for me...lol) and it has really been working. I mean I'm not pulling Biggest Loser numbers but I'm losing and I'm feeling better.

I've been focusing on the amount of carbs, protein and fat I get each day by keeping a food journal of sorts. I'm doing it all online with the Sparkpeople nutrition tracker. I've used it in the past and it's really easy to use. You just plug in the food you eat or will be eating and the amount you ate and spark will automatically calculate calories and nutrients for you if its in their database.

I prepared a whole bunch of different meats on Sunday-chicken breasts, turkey burgers, ground turkey, thin sliced boneless chops and then individually packaged them and put them in the freezer. This has made things so much easier on me for weekly dinners. Now all I have to do is pull out the meat I'm going to use and maybe steam some veggies or cut some up for a salad and throw it all together.

This sort of planning ahead is working for me. I know when I forget my lunch or get lazy and don't have anything prepared for dinner is when the bad choices and binging starts. I really want to keep up having things prepared in advance.

Another great thing I've been picking up is the frozen veggies in the steamer bags. Nothing to do but pop them in the microwave-so easy. Kroger had a good sale on edamame in the steamer bags awhile back and I stocked up. So I steamed some edamame on Tuesday night when I got home and I've been using it since-taking a handful for a snack...throwing some in a salad or with some rice.

I threw this salad together last night on a whim and it took me all of ten minutes tops to get into the bowl and start eating. Its just edamame, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine, and some grilled sliced chicken breast. This goes really well with balsamic dressing or try mixing a bit of hot sauce in with Kraft's Light Done Right Three Cheese Ranch...yum. I had mine with my new favorite dressing-Honey Dijon Vinaigrette.

Long Time No Garden...

2009-04-15T08:51:00.004-04:00

It just came to me that I haven't mentioned the little veggie garden in quite some time and really that's simply because there has not been much progress. With the crazy weather we've had here I haven't been able to actually get the seedlings into the ground until yesterday. They still seem pretty fragile to me and there just hasn't been an abundance of sun for them either so they are really growing pretty slowly.

Yesterday I got outside and finally was able to put seedlings for both red and yellow tomatoes, bell peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts in the ground. I put lettuce, radish, cucumber, spinach and onion seed in the ground too. We'll see what happens.

It got really cold again last night-grrrr....but hopefully not cold enough to stunt the growth of these plants. I swear I might cry or throw a tantrum if I don't get some veggies out of this lot this year.

I haven't started the herb wheel yet-everything I've read says to wait until it gets a bit warmer.

When Life Gives You Lemons...Make THESE Cookies

2009-04-06T21:24:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the corny title...but really you might as well get use to it. I am BIG on corniness. Really though, who cares about the stupid title of this blog-you are wasting too much time worrying about that when you should be making these cookies. Its spring! These cookies are spring! Light, spongy, lemony, fresh cookies.

I say this as I listen to the freezing rain hit my window panes on April 6th in Georgia...yeah its more like winter outside today but these cookies are spring. On the other hand they would probably go nicely with a nice hot cup of mint tea.

They are a Giada recipe...I like Giada, lots of people don't care for Miss Oddly Over sized Noggin, but I like her and usually find her recipes to be fresh and light tasting and not too much fuss goes into making them. Sure its hard to watch her on TV and not focus on whether or not her head might suddenly start bobbling and wobbling on her skinny little neck like a bobble head doll-but the girl makes some good food.

These cookies did not disappoint. They are more cakey and spongy like than they are cookie texture like-but they are so good. You can really taste the creaminess of the ricotta in with the lemon. The glaze is delicious and adds a more intense layer of sweet tart to the cookie. Don't skip the glaze. Don't.

Look you don't have to believe me-here's a few links to a couple of other bloggers who loved these cookies:

Judy's Kitchen

Annie's Eats

Taste and Tell

Giada's Lemon Ricotta Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested
Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookies:
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In the large bowl combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze:
Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Junk Food Collision! Chili Dog Nachos

2009-04-02T15:40:00.004-04:00

What do you get when you combine cheesy nachos and chili dogs? You get fast junk food awesomeness, that's what you get! This is a Rachel Ray recipe from a Food Network All
Stars cookbook I have on the shelf at home. Its not labor intensive-easy to put together and you can adjust to your taste pretty easily.

Rachel calls for ground sirloin-but we don't eat a ton of red meat in our house and its pretty much not budget friendly, so instead I used some ground chicken I had in the freezer that I had picked up on sale one day. I also added about a cup of black beans and a cup of chili beans to mine for more substance.

Chili Dog Nachos

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 turn of the pan
1 pound ground sirloin
Salt and pepper
2 hog dogs, sliced into 1/2- inch pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 sack yellow corn tortilla chips
1 sack, 10 ounces, shredded yellow Cheddar
Sour cream, garnish
Salsa, garnish
2 scallions, chopped

Directions

Heat a medium skillet over high heat. Add oil then beef, and begin to brown and crumble with a wooden spoon, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add chopped hot dogs and continue browning, another 3 minutes. Add onions and seasonings, Worcestershire, chili powder, and cumin. Cook another 3 to 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and simmer 5 minutes more.
Preheat broiler.
Arrange corn chips on a platter or in a casserole dish. Top the chips with the cooked chili dog topping. Cover the chili dog sauce with cheese. Melt cheese under hot broiler, 2 minutes, until melted and bubbly. Garnish with sour cream, salsa and chopped scallions.

**Tip-I like to place my tortilla chips on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for 4-5 minutes before I top them. It adds a little more flavor to them and brings out the saltiness of the chips a bit-plus it makes them all toasty and warm.

Chorizo corn chowder

2009-04-01T23:29:00.005-04:00

I'm not feeling very wordy today-my sinus are killing me-its that lovely death by pollen time of year once again here in the G to the A so I'm in a constant state of blah...dis zoup recipe was good though...try it.

*****I FOUND THIS RECIPE HERE: http://www.jerseybites.com/2009/03/spicy-corn-chowder-with-chorizo/*******************

Chorizo Corn Chowder

What you need:

2 teaspoons EVOO

5 Chorizo links, skin removed

1 whole medium onion, chopped

1 whole sweet red pepper, seeded & chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 canned Chipotle Pepper in adobo sauce, chopped

1 cup peeled and cubed red potato

2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

1 can creamed corn

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 cup half and half

What you do:

Add 2 teaspoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a large dutch oven. Add chorizo and brown approximately 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Leave remaining oil in pot and add onion and pepper and saute until tender for approximately 10 minutes.

Add garlic and saute for 2 minutes.Add chipotle, potato and 1/2 cup corn and saute for one minute.

Add back approximately 1/2 cup of crumbled chorizo, cumin, broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer covered for 10 minutes or until potato is fork tender.

Add half and half and using a stick blender, blend soup until smooth. Add rest of sausage and corn back to soup and simmer until corn is cooked. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, shredded cheese and/or chopped cilantro.

Changes you might want to make:

I think I would like this a little bit spicier, so next time I might add some jalapeno to mine and maybe a squeeze of lime and some cilantro.

Post 101: Sauteed Cherry Tomato Couscous

2009-03-31T18:27:00.006-04:00

Interesting little tidbit...or not: I was just looking at my blogger dashboard and noticed that my last post was my 100th post here. It just doesn't seem like I've posted that much over here, especially with the long hiatus' I've taken from time to time. Ah well my own little mini milestone I guess...

On to the recipe!

This one is a WINNER. Its super fast-really 15 minutes or less from start to finish, and it felt like comfort food to me. I ate it as a main dish for dinner, but you could easily throw chicken or fish along side it for the true carnivores.

Its a recipe from the Nature Sweet Tomato Company that I found in one of those Sunday paper coupon inserts. I modified it a little bit and it was truly delicious.

Sauteed Grape (Cherry) Tomato Couscous

Here's what you need:

3 cups low sodium veg stock (I used 1.5 cups chicken broth and 1.5 cups water)

1.5 cups couscous

1 tbsp EVOO

2 cups halved grape or cherry tomatoes

1/4 cup fresh spinach leaves, torn

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 cloves garlic ( I actually omitted this inadvertently and it was still good)

1 minced shallot

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil (I used about a tsp of dried basil)

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Here's what you do:

Place stock in a large saucepan over high heat and heat to boiling. Remove immediately from heat, and season with salt and pepper then stir in couscous and cover. Let stand for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in saute pan over med high heat. When hot, add tomatoes, spinach, walnuts, garlic and shallots. Saute for about 3 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften. Add basil and toss together. Season with salt and pepper.

Fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a serving bowl. Add tomato mixture and combine gently.

Perfect Shrimp Cocktail

2009-03-28T21:27:00.005-04:00

Ah skrimp...its my fav. I totally dig it, but I don't buy it often because its not cheap and I will eat very bit of it. We went grocery shopping today though and Red was all, "OOOOH Shrimp Mommy! Let's get some SHRIMP!" over and over and over again as though it were the treat of a lifetime. He even threw in the"I'll be your best friend!?" line. So I got some.

Oh yeah and don't hate on the WT (white trash) ghettotastic tator tots in the pic...you know they are good. You know you like them! You know you do. We don't ever buy the things-but you know every once in awhile you gotta be bad...and this was another kid request. Yeah, he wanted shrimp and tator tots for dinner...I almost caved and got some frozen fishsticks. Oh yes, that's right! Frozen mystery fish type stuff smooshed together and breaded...I was able to overcome the urge though and pass them by.

Hey, don't be mad at me. Nobody ever claimed this was a food snob blog. We drink Arbor Mist round here too.

Anyway-my favorite way to eat shrimp is basic shrimp cocktail over ice with cocktail sauce and lemon. I love it fried or scampi style or tossed with pasts-but my absolute fav is shrimp cocktail.

Some people will just thaw and rinse some frozen shrimp and serve it and I just think that is nasty. It has a fishy taste then that ruins it for me.

I have an easy peasy fo'sheezy way to make perfect shrimp cocktail.

Here's what you need:

1 14 oz package frozen shrimp, deveined-tail on, thawed

1 lemon

1 large bowl of lukewarm water

celery salt or old bay seasoning

Here's what you do:

-slice up lemon and place lemon slices into bowl of lukewarm water.

-let lemon water set for about an hour.

-put shrimp into colander and rinse under cool water

-add celery salt and/or old bay seasoning to bowl of lemon water

-add shrimp to bowl and let sit for about 15 minutes

-dump bowl into colander and discard liquid

-place shrimp in the fridge for a few minutes to chill

I like to serve mine over some crushed ice (to keep them very cold) with lemon slices and cocktail sauce.

Flounder Packets with Lemon and Tomatoes

2009-03-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is a recipe from cookinglight.com. I will use more ginger next time I make it and make sure my fish isn't so waterlogged. I used thawed frozen flounder and I should have let it dry on some paper towels a bit before I baked it in the parchment paper packets.

The flavor is nice though-I love the lemon and ginger and tomatoes with the light fish. Nice and light and easy to throw together-pretty presentation.

Flounder Packets with Lemon and Tomatoes

Yield
4 servings (serving size: 1 fillet, about 2 tablespoons tomatoes, and about 2 tablespoons green onions)

Ingredients
4 (6-ounce) flounder fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, thinly sliced
1 large lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 cup thinly sliced cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
Cooking spray

Preparation
Preheat oven to 425°.
Cut a (36-inch-long) piece of parchment paper. Fold in half crosswise; open. Place fillets, slightly overlapping, in the center of right half of paper. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with ginger, lemon, tomatoes, and onions.
Fold paper; seal edges with narrow folds. Slide packet onto a baking sheet; lightly coat packet with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until browned. Place on a platter; cut open.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 171 (12% from fat)
Fat: 2.2g (sat 0.5g,mono 0.4g,poly 0.6g)
Protein: 32.9g
Carbohydrate: 3.7g
Fiber: 1.2g
Cholesterol: 82mg
Iron: 1.2mg
Sodium: 439mg
Calcium: 56mg

Chicken Salad w/ Grape Tomatoes

2009-03-24T13:32:00.000-04:00

I love chicken salad in all forms...well I love potato and tuna salad too...oh and egg salad. I think I just love adding mayo to things to be perfectly honest. It does need to be the right mayo though...I'm not big on things like miracle whip or "sweet" mayos. I like my Hellman's and there is another brand that use to be sold by the Winn Dixie grocery chain called Blue Plate Mayo that I liked too.

Anyway-this is not a blog about mayo its about Chicken Salad! You can make chicken salad 1843 different ways and its pretty hard to screw up. Throw what you like in a bowl and add mayo and you've got a great sandwich filler or lettuce topper.

This is a nice refreshing easy recipe that sounds somewhat similar to this Ina Garten recipe that I've yet to actually try. She has broccoli in hers and tarragon. YUM.

I used two boneless skinless chicken breasts that I baked in the oven in a mixture of olive oil, white wine black pepper, kosher salt and thyme.

Chicken Salad w/ Grape Tomatoes

-2 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, rough chopped or shredded

-1/2 cup halved grape tomatoes

-a pinch of fresh thyme leaves

-1 tsp spicy or whole grain mustard

-1-2 tbsp of mayo (depending on how moist you like it)

-about a tbsp of minced onion or chives

Mix all of the ingredients together and serve on bread, wrapped in a tortillas or lettuce leaves, or over some mixed greens.

This Week's Theme: Grape Tomatoes!

2009-03-24T09:30:00.004-04:00

I bought a bunch of grape tomatoes at the grocery this week and then when I was meal planning and perusing recipes I happened to come across three different recipes to use them in. Odd. Its as though grape tomatoes were meant to be this week.

Is there some cosmic significance to all of the tomatoness this week? Could the sudden abundance of tomatoes in my life have some hidden meaning?

The dream dictionary lists this info about "dreaming' of tomatoes:

To dream of eating tomatoes, signals the approach of good health. To see them growing, denotes domestic enjoyment and happiness. For a young woman to see ripe ones, foretells her happiness in the married state.

Well, shit fire! If all that is true and applies to the waking hours then dammit I'm in for some goodness in the next few weeks! Ya hooey! Sounds good to me so let's just go with it,mmmkay?

I've got three recipes I'll be sharing this week:

**Chicken salad with Grape Tomatoes

**Flounder Packets with Lemon and Tomatoes

**Couscous with Grape Tomatoes

Speaking of tomatoes...the seedlings are growing in the starter tray and ALMOST ready to be transplanted into the garden plot. I've got the soil all worked over in the plot and ready for the seedlings and seeds to be planted. So far everything but the peppers have sprouted.

I planted two different types of tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, brussels and peppers in this batch. I don't have the tray in front of me, but I might have planted some onion too-or I might be saving those seeds to go directly into the garden with the cucumber seeds...can't remember. Oh well.

Got some mesculin greens mix started in a window box too.

I want to get some summer squash and corn started too. Probably start those the first week in April.

I need to get the circle dug up and the bricks installed for the herb wheel also. If the weather cooperates I'll get all of this and some tree mulching done over the weekend.

Happy "Patrick's" Day Pretzel Treats

2009-03-17T09:37:00.006-04:00

You know I have been scouring the shelves for fun ingredients to make St. Patty's Day treats for Red's class and there really is not much selection down here? I remember growing up in Cleveland what a huge deal St. Patty's was...the streets were decorated and the yellow lines on the roads on some of the streets in Euclid would have green painted next to them...they use to even dye the river green when I was very young.

The parade was a huge event and as we grew into trouble making, experimental teenagers everyone would cut out of school to go to the parade and drink beer and be foolish. It was fun. I mean who doesn't love a good rousing round of silly Irish pub songs? It was like the Mardi Gras of the Midwest for us.

We ate corned beef and cabbage and drank lots of beer and hugged and partied with our friends. Good times...

Ah, the corned beef...I miss that. Cleveland is inundated with little Mom and Pop Corned Beef Sandwich spots...they come piled high with melted Swiss and mustard on rye...or you can have them Reuben style with a thousand island style dressing...so so bad, but so so good.

Ah the memories...

Anyway, Red's pretty into the whole "Patrick's Day" thing because well according to him, its Patrick from Sponge Bob's show day! That and anytime he gets to bring treats into school and wear a special color or something he is all about it. He loves a good celebration.

We made some candy coated pretzels for the class...pretty they are not, but tasty oh yes...and easy. He had fun making them and can't wait to share them with his class today as you can see here...don'tcha just {heart} a kids face that is beaming with pride?

Candy Coated Patrick's Day Pretzels

1 package vanilla almond bark (or you could do white choco chips)

green gel food coloring

1 bag mini twist pretzels

1 shaker of sprinkles

Melt the almond bark in the microwave. I broke the square in half and then mic'd it for 90 seconds...take it out and stir. continue to mic and stir in 15 second intervals until it is smooth creamy and melted.

Add some gel food coloring and mix to your color liking.

Place handfuls of pretzels into melted almond bark. Remove with skewers and place on a cooling rack or on wax or parchment paper. Before candy coating dries and hardens sprinkle with sprinkles or colored sugar.

Let candy coating harden for a few hours and then bag or container them.

Lemon Yogurt Pancakes

2009-03-15T12:38:00.003-04:00

Mmmm sounds airy light and refreshing right?

Meh-not so much...these just weren't lemony enough for me. The concept sounds good though so I think I will make them again-add more lemon juice next time and probably use vanilla yogurt rather than plain. I made them with fat free milk and fat free plain yogurt so that really could have added to the blahs with these pancakes.

Please, don't get me wrong, they weren't bad at all-just weren't what I expected. The way I made them-they just came out kind of regular. I barely tasted the lemon-I should have added more zest. I will definitely try them another time and modify the recipe like I suggested above.

Ah well, I dressed them up a bit with some fresh sliced strawberries and some butter and squeezed a little lemon juice on top.

Lemon Yogurt Pancakes

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 t baking soda

3/4 t baking powder

1 T brown sugar

1/4 t salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 c vanilla yogurt

1/2 c milk

zest of 1 lemon + juice

1 T butter for cooking

1. In a large bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs and add in the remaining ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and gently fold together. Let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Melt a bit of butter in your griddle or cast iron pan and add a small amount of batter. Cook until bubbles appear and the edges look dry. Flip the cakes over and cook for a few minutes more.

Edamame! Eat it!

2009-03-11T17:29:00.007-04:00

Edamame is my favorite...I covet Ruby Tuesday's salad bar because they have it. I always get a little mixed greens and top them with heaping spoonfuls of edamame when we go. Its just another way to say soybeans and we all know that soybeans are soooo good for us.

Just a half cup of edamame packs nearly 17 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber! As with any bean they do have a little fat-but its the good fat and not the bad so not to worry...enjoy!

My favorite way to eat it is blanched and chilled, but I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate it into our meals because it does pack such a healthy punch.

I threw this dish together last night to go alongside some pork we were eating...Its sort of like a succotash style dish...just sans corn and I added a bit of basil and parmesan to give it a little something extra.

Edamame with Peppers and Parmesan

1 bag frozen edamame

1/2 of a red pepper diced

1/2 onion, diced

1 tsp dried basil

1 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup (or more-you can never have too much cheese) paremesan cheese

pepper

kosher salt

~Cook edamame according to package directions, drain and set aside.

~While edamame is cooking saute the onions and peppers in the olive oil, add slat and pepper to taste.
~Combine pepper and onion mix with edamame and add parmesan and basil, stir to incorporate. Eat!

Speedy Side Dish: Bulgur with Pine Nuts

2009-03-11T09:31:00.006-04:00

Quick? Check.

Easy? Check.

Healthy? Check.

Here's a super healthy whole grain side dish that takes 20 minutes start to finish with very little prep or fuss...Its packed with nutrients from the whole grain and fiber filled bulgur to the protein packed pine nuts. Use low fat/low sodium chicken broth or sub with veggie broth to make it even healthier...

Bulgur with Pine Nuts

1 cup bulgur
2 cups chicken broth
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

In a large saucepan, combine the bulgur, broth and onions; bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-18 minutes or until broth is absorbed.

Add pine nuts and stir to combine.

Nutritional Analysis: Makes 4 servings (1/2 cup size) 1/2 cup equals 177 calories, 5 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 29 g carbohydrate, 7 g fiber, 7 g protein.

L.O.V.E. Wraps

2009-03-06T11:56:00.004-05:00

The husband dude is in competition training mode so he's eating eggs like a man lately. It seems as though my fridge is spilling over with hard cooked eggs. The weather was so springy last night that I wasn't really feeling a heavy dinner so I grabbed a couple of his hard cooked eggs from his stash and figured I would make some egg salad wraps with the tortillas I had just made. Egg salad is easy and you can add whatever you like to it-I usually just add some mayo, mustard finely chopped onions and a bit of s&p to mine but I thought I'd see if I could find something a little different.

I came across Ellie Krieger's recipe for L.O.V.E wraps...fitting for the whole Grow Food LOVE thing, eh?

Its simple, not much different from how I normally make my egg salad. I didn't have any red peppers on hand so I did without those and I added about two pinches of shredded Colby-jack cheese to mine.

They turned out really tasty-a nice light warm weather lunch or even dinner for those nights that cooking isn't high up on the list of things you want to do.

L.O.V.E Wraps (Lettuce Onion Veggie Egg)

8 hard boiled eggs
4 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
4 pieces whole-wheat wrap bread (9 inches in diameter) **Used homemade tortillas**
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
12 thin slices red onion
8 leaves romaine lettuce, torn into pieces (about 1/2 cup)

Directions
Dice 4 whole eggs and 4 egg whites and put into a small bowl. Add the mayonnaise and mustard and stir with a fork, mashing somewhat for desired consistency. Stir in chives and season with salt and pepper. Place wrap bread on a plate and spread the egg salad in the middle. Top with the peppers, onion slices and the lettuce. Fold into a wrap sandwich.

***I actually halved this recipe and it was enough to make FOUR mini wraps with smaller taco sized tortillas.***

How to Make "Rustic" Homemade Tortillas

2009-03-06T11:16:00.002-05:00

1. Get some flour, oil, baking powder, salt and water.

2. Heat a griddle or skillet to about 375 degrees or you know hot enough to make water sizzle when you flick some droplets into the pan.

3. Hire a cute rolling pin operator like the one pictured here:

4. Follow this recipe:

HOMEMADE FLOUR TORTILLAS

2 cups of white flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water

~Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.
Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.
The dough will be sticky.

~Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough. If the dough sticks to the cutting board while kneading, scrape up the dough and dust the board with a little flour and continue kneading. Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have a nice smooth dough.

~Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

~Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.
Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth. Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.

~Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat. You really can't beat cast iron pans for even heat distribution and their ability to withstand high heat without warping.
Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

~It's difficult to roll out a perfectly round tortilla so if that is important to you, you can always trim the tortilla with a knife-but really...(Insert rolling eyes here)

~Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds.
Don't over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.

~Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

~Tortillas are best eaten hot right off the griddle, but you can refrigerate and freeze them too.
If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to use them, first thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes.

Just a Hunka Hunka Burger Love

2009-03-02T08:43:00.003-05:00

Presenting...LOVE Burgers!

Made these just to be sweet to the husband guy on Saturday night...he's training for another competition at the end of March so that means he's on a high protein, almost no fat and high carb diet right now that which means something decadent and sweet won't really win his heart. He's never a big sweet/pastry/baked goods kind of person anyway so I have to find other ways to show him I love him through food.

Nothing really to these babies-just ground turkey a little seasoned salt, onion powder and a couple of small dashes of cinnamon and Worcestershire sauce. Served with a little Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce on the side. These would have been lovely with some caramelized onion and Swiss but like I mentioned earlier we were going with HEALTHY and LOW FAT.

I put some parchment paper down on the counter and patted the seasoned ground turkey into a rectangle that was about and inch thick and used a big heart shaped cookie cutter to cut the meat into heart shaped patties.

I also used my broiler pan and baked them in the oven so that any fat would cook out and off the burgers.

The season salt and cinnamon adds a slight sweet taste to the burgers.

Anyway, its kind of silly but the little extra touch, which didn't take anymore time than a burger would normally take to make was much appreciated by the husband guy. Just a nice little non traditional way to let my meat loving man know I love him.

Random Journal Entry: Feb 26 09

2009-02-26T19:42:00.005-05:00

Today was a beautiful day. It was a little bit chilly still but semi overcast-which is my FAVORITE (Strange, I know.) The network crashed at work and for about three hours we all sat around incessantly rebooting our PCs, skimming the newspapers, talking about food, creating a lottery pool and discussing what we would do with the winnings, and listening to ridiculous stories from Johnny D, our honorary window-licker and the source of much entertainment around the office.

Well after 3 hours we were all burnt out and restless and starving from all the food talk so we departed the office and went our separate ways. I headed over to Lowe's just to price some items for the garden and walked out with 60 paver bricks to use for the herb wheel garden. I scored a nice price-21 cents a piece!

Heading back to the office I saw the DQ sign yelling my name and said to hell with it and picked up a small choco cherry blizzard. Yum I haven't had DQ in awhile. I almost always get a small blizzard, but whatever is in their ice cream never allows me to finish it. I get about half way done and its overkill and time to stop. Every time. Not complaining though-my wide load butt surely doesn't need the whole thing.

I managed to clean out my car this afternoon too and do the windows. The fingerprint art work on them was horrendous.

Picked up Red from school later in the afternoon and we spent about an hour hand turning and raking the dirt in a 8x10 plot next to the house. I was going to start on the opposite side of the house-but this side has virtually no grass growing in this section so it won't require the use of a tiller. that will save me a little bit of money. We have so much rock in our soil its ridiculous-I would hardly call it soil...its pretty much clay and rocks.

I decided we need to get a chain saw and cut down some of the smaller trees right in that area too since there are a couple that are uncomfortably close to the house. I'll have to try and get Tracy to work on that next weekend. It will reduce the shade hours in that section of the yard too-which will be good for the garden.

There's tons of rain in the forecast this weekend so I won't be able to apply my grass and weed killer around the garden plot. I'll probably just get out there and keep working the soil. I need to go ahead an build the the border with some landscaping timbers. I'm guessing I will have to dig a small trench of sorts so that the timbers will settle and rest in the ground.

I got in a quick workout with the bag tonight. Its always best to listen to something hardcore and angry when working the bag-either that or super high energy techno. It just makes the workout that much better.

Red and I spent the rest of the evening making salmon patties and mac and cheese and salad and drawing pictures and practicing writing letters. He showed me (wink, wink) how to make a rainbow and informed me that I need more practice making rainbows because I don't use enough colors on my rainbows.

Pork with Apples and Pierogies: Memories of Home

2009-02-25T15:53:00.004-05:00

We all have a favorite (or favorites in my case) comfort food. Its usually something that reminds us of being a kid and takes us back to our Mom's or Grandmom's kitchen. For me comfort foods tend to be creamy or cheesy and full of carbs. Pierogies are definitely on my list. They are big in Northeastern Ohio, where I grew up. There are alot of Eastern European roots in that area and pierogies can be found at tons of mom and pop restaurants.

I've yet to find them down here except for a variety sold in the frozen section at the grocery store.

I pulled out some boneless pork chops the other night and saw the pierogies in there and figured they 'd go well together. I started searching for a recipe online and came across one that included both pierogies and chops. There was also apple and onion so I knew it was going to be a winner.

I adjusted it a bit. The recipe called for bone in chops-I used boneless chops that I cut into strips and I added a bit of parsley for some color. I also used olive oil instead of butter. They were delicious and I really think I could have eaten the pieorgies alone without the pork. Simple delicious comfort food.

Pork Chops N Pierogies

INGREDIENTS
8 frozen potato and onion pierogies
2 (3/4 inch) thick bone-in pork loin chops
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 medium sweet onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 Golden Delicious apple, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Cook pierogies according to package directions. ***I like to saute/stir fry my pierogies rather than boil them***

Meanwhile, sprinkle pork chops with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In a large skillet, cook chops in 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat until juices run clear; remove and keep warm.

In the same skillet, saute onion in remaining butter for 3 minutes. Add apple; saute until almost tender.

Stir in the sugar, vinegar, and remaining salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Add pork chops and pierogies to skillet; stir to coat.

Friday's Happy Clips and Garden Snips

2009-02-19T09:26:00.007-05:00

Friday Happy Clips...

Gots-ta love Pre-schooler artwork! I have binders full of artwork from the first 4 years of this child's life. The hardest part is deciding what to keep and what to toss. I just want to keep every little scribbled on paper he makes. This one is a definite keeper and makes me giggle. Its called "Dog Chasing Cat"-I have to wonder about the blank look on the striped dogs face. He doesn't seem too terribly excited about "chasing" this 6 legged cat. The cat looks thoroughly annoyed. Maybe I'll mat and frame this one, it makes me giggle every time I look at it.

And the silly little artist who created this fabulous work of art-well, we can not forget him. He was full of happiness this week. This, after Satan himself invaded and took over his little body over the weekend. HOLY 4 YEAR OLD ATTITUDE! I was on the verge of entering the land of "Mommie Dearest"with this child this weekend. It WERE NOT purrty folks, not purrty at all. Alas, my happy silly and angelically behaved little boy is back and has rebuked the devilish ways of yester-weekend.

Garden Snips...

Here's the garden plan for this year:

One 5 ft in diameter circular sectioned herb garden (IF I can find FREE or next to nothing bricks) IE, an Herb Wheel.

One 8x10 foot vegetable garden.

"Salad Bowl" window box

Herbs:

Rosemary

Cilantro

Dill

Basil

Chives

Thyme

Mint

Veggies:

Tomatoes-three varieties including one yellow tomato

Corn

Cabbage

Broccoli

Carrots

Yellow Squash and Zucchini

Pole Beans

Cucumbers

Red leaf lettuce

Bibb Lettuce

Dandelion Greens

Supplies Needed:

Mid turn tiller (RENT $35)

Twine (already have on hand)

Bricks (HOPEFULLY FREE)

landscaping timbers, 2x?? ($20)

Stakes ($10)

Plastic fencing roll ($10)

Organic Topsoil-probably about a yard and a half ($35)

Mulch ($20)

Trellis of some sort ($10)

Zip ties (already have on hand)

Irrigation drip style hose ($10)

Starter pod trays (already have on hand)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't wait to get started, I'll probably start marking off and digging up the plots outside and plant the seeds indoors in the starter trays this weekend. I have to pick up a few more seed packets and some herb plants over the next few weeks.

I might fore go building the rain barrel-just depends on what the cost is going to be for the supplies to actually make one.

Morning Morsels of Marvelousness

2009-02-18T20:10:00.000-05:00

Mmmm.

Mmmmm.

Scones. I love scones-they've become my new favorite baked good. Sweet or savory, scones=love. They are the perfect little accompaniment to a steamy hot mug o' ______ (Fill in the blank please)...seriously.

Coffee + scone=YES. Tea+scone=YES. Soup+scone=YES, YES, YES!

I'm partial to the S'bucks cinnamon chip and pumpkin scones but damn(!) in this economy? I'll be making my own, thanks! Which, by the way, is sinfully easy to do. The key to a good scone is cold, cold ,cold! Bowls, beaters, cream, or butter-whatever-it needs to be very cold...and don't overwork the dough. That's simple enough, right? Really-I am not a skilled baker-I suck at baking because I'm so sloppy and impatient. Baking is mathematical and precise in nature-cooking is throw it in there and tweak it like this, tweak it like that...I want to be a good baker though-so I work at it. Scones are perfect for me-they are so easy and quick to throw together, and the end result is always perfect bites of light flavorful goodness. They are so simply perfect they make people who don't know any better think they have to be difficult to make.

I have yet to make a savory scone at home-but I will be trying a recipe out soon. I just purchased a little scone cast iron pan to make the process even easier. YAY!

Anyway-these babies are yummy! I threw them together last night on a whim. I've been obsessing over making a new scone this week, so I looked in the pantry and saw some leftover toffee chips. Hmmm...googling I a went.

I came across THIS lovely recipe at Recipegirl.com

I did tweak it a bit-so here is the recipe for the version I made:

TOFFEE CHIP SCONES

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

1 Tbs plus ¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup chopped Heath or Skor bars (or use toffee bits)

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream

TOPPING:

2 Tbs (¼ stick) unsalted butter, melted

granulated or coarse white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; mix well. Stir in toffee bits.
3. In a large, chilled mixing bowl (chill bowl and beaters in freezer for 15 minutes- or in fridge for an hour), whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold whipped cream into dry ingredients; combine well. It will be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead gently until a soft dough forms; about 2 minutes. Form dough into 2 balls. Pat each ball out into a circle. Place each on a cookie sheet, and cut pie-like into 8 wedges. Pull each wedge out a little bit to create about 1-inch space between each wedge.

5. For topping: Brush scones with melted butter. Sprinkle each scone with a bit of granulated or coarse white sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 18 to 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

Yield: 16 small scones or 12 big ones

Dead Batteries and Thai Peanut Noodles

2009-02-18T11:34:00.007-05:00

Make these noodles! If you are a visual person like me, seeing a picture of the recipe you are about to try is an important factor in deciding whether or not to make it. I love pretty, colorful food. I eat with my eyes as well as my mouth. so, that being said I totally suck for not having a final product picture to provide with this fantastical peanutty pasta-y recipe-the camera yelled, "CHANGE THE BATTERIES" at me just as I snapped the completed dish's pic. DOH! I thought there might be a slight chance that it saved that final snapshot-but no, it did not.

Ah well, trust me-this is good stuff. I was able to snap a few pics during the preparation so maybe that will help you food voyeurs out just a little bit.

Thai Peanut Noodles from Epicurious.com

8-10 oz. linguine or flat rice noodles
8 green onions
3 small garlic cloves
1 T. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots
1/2 large red bell pepper
2 T. sesame oil
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 t. unseasoned rice vinegar
1/4-1/2 t. red pepper (optional)
1/2 c. mung bean sprouts
1/3 c. chopped peanuts (I used plain, unsalted)

Whisk together honey, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar and red pepper and set aside.

Cook the pasta according to package directions until al dente. Julienne the green onions, carrots, and bell pepper; and mince the garlic. Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the carrots, saute for a minute or two, then add the garlic, bell peppers, onions, and garlic. Saute until crisp tender.

Add the liquid ingredients and heat through, stirring gently.

Then add the pasta and toss until coated.
Garnish with the chopped peanuts and bean sprouts...and eat. MMMMM.

Back in the Saddle Again

2009-02-05T19:45:00.005-05:00

Hello, my name is slackadasical. I'm BAAAAAACCKKK!

Meh-wow, it has been a ridonkulously long time since I blogged. I'm not sure what happened-but I do tend to have a personality reminiscent of the latest Katy Perry song. You know how it goes, "You're hot then your cold, you're yes then your no. You're in then your out, you're up then your down..." That's me. I often times dive head first into things-full throttle-balls to the wall-can't get enough and then over time I get bored, stagnant and really just completely over whatever the latest passion is and I dump it off in some corner only to collect dust until the next time something sparks my interest in it again.

I've still been cooking just not really feeling inspired by anything as of late. I haven't really crafted much in the last couple of months either. I did make some fantastic ornaments at Christmas time and I hope to work a few arts and craft fairs later on this year and possibly sell some of them.

So I think I'm stepping out of my cooking rut and back into the recipe test kitchen again. Spring is near and it will be planting season again as well. I really hope I can find a way to get a large garden working this year. the drought and extreme heat really made it difficult to sustain the plants last year late into the summer. I've collected a few more books this year though so I'm hoping I will be off to a better start and can find ways to keep things going even if we do suffer yet another dry summer here in Georgia.

I am obsessed with planting dandelion greens and some radicchio this year to throw into fresh soring mix salads. I also want to plant squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, beans and some herbs.

I'm big into ginger and nutty flavors, Asian fusion style foods and oh yes...baking.

Over the next few weeks I've got a few things I need to accomplish to get rolling in the growing fooding and loving year of 2009.

Growing
1. Open up the gardening books and sketch out a plan and schedule of planting.
2. Make a rain barrel
3. Rent a tiller
4. Price soil, seeds and tools.

Fooding
1. Cabinet organization (It gives me kitchen zen)
2. Get a few new gadgets and tools
3. Re-stock the freezer and pantry

Loving (and living)
1. Reorganize the house (I'm so much nicer when things are organized and uncluttered)
2. Keep working on the basement
3. Get some things up and sold on Craigslist
4. Finish the bedroom sanctuary
5. Make STUFF-all kinds of stuff-just keep making it

Long Time, No Post...Caramel Apple Pie

2008-11-13T09:58:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure what is up with me and the blogging world. I've sort of just been in a slump with cooking and life in general I guess. I haven't felt like doing anything but watching CNN or MSNBC. I am addicted to politics! It has consumed my life to the extent of not being able to cook or eat any decent quality meal for the last couple of months. All is well now though-I'm still addicted to politics-but the stressful part of it is over. Now I can enjoy life and what the future has to bring.

Blah, blah, blah...anyway...its Early Turkey Day here at work this week. Everyone gets together from our zone and brings in a dish and we cook and eat and talk and laugh and relax for the day. Its good times...(for being at work). I decided to make a squash casserole and a caramel apple pie. The casserole turned out great. I will definitely make it again.

The pie...well, the pie was: FRACKTASTIC!

I found the recipe on the foodnetwork website and it claims to be a blue ribbon winner. I believe it. It was wonderful. I did cheat and use a refrigerated pie crust. Blasphemy-I know...but it was still good. Really good.

I opted out of putting the top crust on the pie and instead just used a mini cookie cutter to cut out little apples and placed them on top of the struesel instead.

The filling is going to be my go to for anything apple I make from now on.

Here's the recipe:

Caramel Apple Pie-Food Network

Pie Crust:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter flavored shortening, chilled

1/3 cup ice water

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 egg, beaten

Filling:

6 cups apples (Jonathan or Granny Smith)

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purposeflour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

Streusel Topping:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon butter

2 toffee bars or 3 ounces chocolate covered peanut or pecan brittle, crushed

Pie Crust:

Chill all ingredients, including the flour and vinegar. Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles cornmeal. In another bowl, mix water and vinegar with the beaten egg. Add the liquid mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, to the flour mixture, tossing with a fork to form a soft dough.

Filling: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Peel and slice apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and add apples. Toss to mix. Add vanilla and cream. Melt butter in heavy skillet. Add apple mixture and cook approximately 8 minutes, to soften apples. Turn into pie shell.

Streusel Topping: Combine the flour and sugar. Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs. stir in the crushed toffee bars. Sprinkle over pie. Add top crust. Seal, flute edge and vent top. Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 45 minutes longer.

Fracktastic Asian Burgers and Special Spice Sweet Potato Fries

2008-10-13T10:21:00.002-04:00

I threw these together last minute on Saturday. They were fracktastic! I doubled all of the ingredients in the burger recipe because I had about 1.5 lbs of ground turkey to use-maybe more. I also subbed green onion for the reg diced onion and added some hot pepper flakes to the mix. I used a whole egg instead of just the egg white too. These burgers were delicious.

Here's the recipe from allrecipes.com:

Asian Turkey Burgers

INGREDIENTS

1 egg white
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon pepper
12 ounces ground turkey

DIRECTIONS

In a bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Crumble turkey over mixture and mix just until combined. Shape into four patties. Cook in a nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray until no longer pink.

The Sweet Potato Fries:

I had a frozen bag of julienned sweet potatoes that I threw on an aluminum foil baking sheet sprayed with olive oil cooking spray. I then dusted the fries with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and my super secret special spice blend from Ohio. (I will be sad when I run out of this stuff) OK-so its Maple Cinnamon Apple spice-its not really a secret-I just don't know how to get anymore of it-it was sent with a gift basket a long time ago. anyway-I baked them at about 400 for 20 minutes or so-just until they started to crisp up a bit.

Served some steamed veggies on the side with the Rice Wine Oyster Sauce I posted a BLOG about awhile ago.

Meal Plan: Oct 12-Oct 25

2008-10-13T07:52:00.002-04:00

Things are tight so in order to really stay in budget I have to stick to the meal plan during this two week pay period. I only got the things I needed at the grocery store and tried to get things that would use alot of the same ingredients so I could get the most use out of what I already have on hand in the pantry too. We'll see if I can manage to feed 3 on $110 for two weeks. (Mind you I have alot in my pantry so the actual cost would really be more)

Sunday: Asian Turkey Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, Veggies with Rice Wine Oyster Sauce
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Crockpot Angel Chicken and Rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday:Beef Tips and Noodles
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Chili Dog Nachos
Sunday: Pulled Pork, Honey Roast Potatoes, Corn Casserole
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Cottage Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, Mexi Rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Butternut Squash and noodle Casserole, Salad
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Lasagna, Salad

Scones: Summer Meets Fall

2008-10-06T01:11:00.003-04:00

I am in love with scones. Yes. I. Am.

They are officially my new favorite baked good. They are ridiculously easy to whip up and bake, and they go so well with steamy hot beverages.

I tried two different recipes this weekend, from two different bloggers and that represented two different seasons. Blackberries are a summer fruit and we all know pumpkins are like the fruit mascot for fall. I loved both of these recipes, but I'm partial to the pumpkin.

I had a little trouble with my blackberry scone dough. For some reason, it was very very sticky and I followed the recipe to a "T. Not sure what happened with that-but even though they look lumpy and not so pretty, they were tasty. A bit on the tart side-thanks to my extra tart wild blackberries (they are the ones I picked earlier in the summer and froze); I tend to like things that are tart though.

My favorite of the two recipes was the Pumpkin Scones...I mean I love all things pumpkin and these did not disappoint. I made up a small cup of pumpkin butter to double the pumpkin ecstasy and that sent these over the top. Imagine warm pumpkin scones fresh out of the oven with creamy pumpkiny butter spread over the top and a steaming pumpkin spice latte-ahhh that's pumpkin nirvana right there!

The pumpkin scones got the big thumbs up from both of the boys too and Red is now practicing saying the word "SCONE".

So anyway here are the recipes-make these now! Your tummy will be happy you did.

Blackberry Scones by Everybody Likes Sandwiches

1/2 c milk

1 egg

2 c flour

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

1/4 c cold butter, cubed

3 T white sugar

2 large handfuls of frozen blackberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk the milk and the egg together until frothy and then set aside.

In a large bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and blend the mixture with your hands until you have no lumps larger than a pea.

Add the sugar and the blackberries and toss about until the blackberries are coated with the flour mixture.

Add the egg mixture slowly until the dough comes together.

Leave any remaining egg mixture to brush on as glaze.

Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately 1/2 an inch thick, and cut into 8 wedges.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat.

Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges with remaining egg mixture.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin Scones by Pinch My Salt

1 C. all purpose flour
1 C. cake flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/4 t. ground ginger
6 T. unsalted butter
1/2 C. raisins (optional)
1/3 C. pumpkin puree
1/3 C. heavy cream
6 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Get out a baking sheet and line with parchment paper (not required but makes cleanup easy!). Cut the butter into small pieces, put it in a small bowl and put it back in the refrigerator. In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder, salt, and all spices. Whisk together well. Place bowl in freezer (refrigerator is fine if you have no room in freezer).

2. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, heavy cream, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk together well. Put this bowl in freezer (or refrigerator) and take the other bowl back out. Get the butter pieces out of the fridge and dump them into the bowl with the flour mixture. Cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender or rub it in with your fingertips until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the raisins if you are using them.

3. Get the liquid mixture out of the freezer and pour into the flour mixture all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is just moistened. The dough will be very crumbly, this is the way it should be. Turn the mixture out onto the counter and push the pile together with your hands. It should stick together fairly well. Knead it just a couple of times until everything is together. Don’t knead it too much or the dough will get too sticky.

4. Pat the dough out into a rough circle, 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Cut it like a pie into 8 pieces. Place pieces on the baking sheet so that they are not touching. Bake scones for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees. They should be light brown on the bottom, the tops will darken as they cool.

**the only thing I did differently was use half and half instead of heavy cream.

Daring Bakers September Challenge: Lavash Crackers

2008-09-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

I have never made my own crackers from scratch before and I was running out of time to meet the challenge deadline because Procrastination is my middle name-sooooooo-my crackers um, er...didn't really turn out like crackers-they were more like heavy dry pitas, maybe even closer to hockey pucks. Yeah this was a pretty big fail on my part.

I don't have a rolling pin...Yes, yes. I know. Why on earth would I join a group called "Daring Bakers" without even owing a proper rolling pin? Beats the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks out of me! But I did and I attempted this recipe, and definitely did not get my dough thin enough.

I made a roasted red pepper hummus to go with the hockey puckesque pitas. Better luck next time, eh?

Anyway-here's the recipe:

Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers*

1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour or gluten free flour blend (If you use a blend without xanthan gum, add 1 tsp xanthan or guar gum to the recipe)*

1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt*

1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast*

1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar*

1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil*

1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature*

Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bread-Dough-Has-Been-Mixed-Long-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

2. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), and slightly tacky. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. For Non Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

4. For Gluten Free Cracker Dough: Lay out two sheets of parchment paper. Divide the cracker dough in half and then sandwich the dough between the two sheets of parchment. Roll out the dough until it is a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. Slowly peel away the top layer of parchment paper. Then set the bottom layer of parchment paper with the cracker dough on it onto a baking sheet. 5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

Penne Wise Pumpkin Pasta-Sans Penne

2008-09-25T20:57:00.010-04:00

Do you have any favorite pasta shapes? Or any shapes that you just don't like? I love orzo (who doesn't right?), rigatoni, tortellini (but that's probably due to the lovely cheesy filling), angel hair and radiatori. Orzo has an almost melt in your mouth texture when you eat it and rigatoni and radiatori really hold onto thick chunky sauces well. Angel hair has a nice lightness to it. On the other hand-I don't like rotini or fusilli. Something about its shape gives it a texture that I don't enjoy all that much. I'll eat it-but I definitely don't prefer it.

Last night I used some radiatori pasta to make Rachel Ray's Penne-wise Pumpkin Pasta recipe that I found on the Taste and Tell blog I've been food gawking at lately. I didn't have any penne and I knew that the little radiator shaped pasta curls would hold onto chunks of a pumpkin based sauce nicely.

I was excited to try this dish because anything with pumpkin in it is a winner for me. I love what pumpkin can do in both sweet and savory dishes. Hmmm...I think I'll try a new pumpkin recipe and post it here each week up until Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Turkey Day...what better to pair with pumpkin pasta then some sage and onion turkey meatballs? I didn't follow any real recipe for the meatballs, just threw ground turkey, bread crumbs, sauteed onions, sage, black pepper and salt and egg and a little thyme together and baked the meatballs. The kitchen still smelled like turkey day after I cleaned up and went to bed last night. Mmmm.

I like this-I think I added a little more Parmesan than the recipe called for and I also didn't use the cream that the recipe called for. I had about a 1/4 cup of half and half on hand and then added some skim milk to get the 1/2 cup of dairy required for the recipe. I don't think this hindered the recipe at all. It was still tasty. I also had to sub dry spices for the fresh and onion for the shallots because that's what I can afford right now.

I have to say -if you are looking for something with bold flavor-this isn't the dish for you. It was a light and mild flavored pasta dish-but I find that to be pretty normal for most savory dishes that are pumpkin based. There always seems to be a light freshness about them. I will definitely make this again.

Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta

1 pound whole-wheat penne

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 shallots, finely chopped

3 to 4 cloves garlic, grated

2 cups chicken stock

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup cream**

1 teaspoon hot sauce, to taste

Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste

2 pinches ground cinnamon

Salt and black pepper

7 to 8 leaves fresh sage, thinly sliced plus more, for garnish

Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions:

Heat water for pasta, salt it and cook penne to al dente.
Heat the oil, 2 turns of the pan, over medium heat.

Add shallots and garlic to the pan, saute 3 minutes.

Stir in chicken stock and combine with pumpkin, stir in cream then season sauce with hot sauce, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and pepper.

Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 5 to 6 minutes more to thicken.

Stir in sage, toss with pasta with grated cheese, to taste.

Scones, Galettes, Pasta and More!

2008-09-24T10:18:00.007-04:00

I am addicted to food blogs, but really what respectable foodie isn't? There are so many talented, interesting cooks out there and so many delicious recipes to try. I myself haven't cooked anything blog-worthy in over a week. Times are hard-I've been doing big batches of chili and other cheapie family meals that last a couple of days in order to get by till next payday and the next round of grocery shopping.

That does not mean my urge to cook and bake isn't there though-its actually full on strong! The arrival of fall makes me want to roast, slow cook and bake things everyday. Being here in Georgia, fall is kind of an odd time..one day it will be 85 degrees and the next overcast and cool so I've still got some summery things to try out during our transition into the cooler temps. I've been carousing food blogs daily and have a giant list of new recipes I plan on trying in the near future-should funds allow it.

Anyway, here's a sneak peak at some of the food blog recipes I plan on trying in the upcoming days and weeks:

BLACKBERRY SCONES by Everybody Loves Sandwiches

Lemon Nutmeg Scones by Taste and Tell

Blackberry Peach Galette by Everybody Loves Sandwiches

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette by Smitten Kitchen

Ina Garten's Grown Up Mac and Cheese by Butter and Sugar

Rachel Ray's Penne-Wise Pumpkin Pasta by Taste and Tell

Spanish Style Plantain Omelet by Bren

Low Cal Spring Rolls by La Mia Cucina

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Salad

Chipotle Corn Salad by Alosha's Kitchen

In the Kitchen with Spiderman

2008-09-16T10:35:00.009-04:00

Today we have a special guest appearance at the Grow.Food.Love Kitchen! Its none other than Spiderman! Spiderman has joined us today to show us how to make Twirly Whirly Pizza originally shared with us online by Parents magazine.

Twirly Whirly Pizza

1 tube (13.8 ounces) refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1/2 cup shredded Italian-mix cheese, divided
1 cup fresh baby spinach leaves

1. Heat over to 400°F. Unroll dough from tube. Spread pizza sauce on top.

We caught Spiderman getting ready to lick the spoon while he helped spread the sauce on the dough...this is why spiderman does NOT get to help when we make food for guests.

2. Sprinkle with half of cheese and top with spinach leaves.

What a great leaf spreader you are Spiderman!

3.Roll up, starting with short end.

4. Cut into 8 pieces, then lay pieces flat in a greased pie tin. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 22 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

**my dough was really moist for some reason and this made cutting it and keeping its shape very difficult. Next time I think I will flour the dough a little bit and not roll it quite as thin.

This turned out to be a fun recipe for us and you could really add just about anything you want to it. Its just pizza that looks kind of like a cinnamon roll.

Pantry Raid: Sweet Craving @ 10pm on Sunday

2008-09-15T15:58:00.006-04:00

I don't really buy sweets-OK, well sometimes I do, but I make a conscious effort to keep things like candy bars, baked goods and other store bought goodies out of the house most of the time. Yet, even without having ice cream sitting in the freezer or Oreos in the pantry when that unrelenting merciless late night craving hits-I still find a way to get my sweet fix.

I have been known to whip up a batch of cookie dough to binge on if the craving comes on too strong. In terribly desperate times I've taken a spoon to the honey flavored peanut butter jar and went at it. Its sad really. Sad.

Well last night the craving came on, and I thought I'd throw together a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and be a happy fatty mcfatterson-but come to find out I only had a little more a cup of flour left. Not good...what to do? what to do...

I scanned the pantry and my eyes fell upon a box of banana pudding. Hmm...but there's no milk for the pudding. More hmmm...I want cookies dammit-is all my brain is screaming at me. Now we live 12 miles from the closest store and being that Hurricane Ike is responsible for the gas shortage here and the high price of gas if you can find it-I wasn't making any cookie runs...

I kept eyeing the pudding and thought "pudding cookies"...and off to Google I went. I came up with this recipe from About.com...it was the easiest recipe yet and seriously took only about 15 minutes start to finish before I was able to pop a hot baked cookie in my mouth.

The recipe calls for vanilla pudding, but all I had was banana. I decided instead of loading my cookies with chocolate chips I would just do a thumbprint in the middle to press them down a bit and drop a couple of chips in the indentation.

Now these were by no means some to die for, heavenly cookie-but they were tasty, quick and satisfied my sweet craving just fine.

Pudding Cookies

1 cup self-rising flour
1 package (3.4 oz) instant pudding mix, Vanilla or French Vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips.

Stir in chips.

Form small balls of dough; place on unbaked baking sheet.

These cookies don't spread, so you may want to flatten a bit.

Bake in preheated 350° oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Makes about 18 cookies.

Weekly Menu Planner: Sept 13-19

2008-09-14T09:57:00.003-04:00

I'm late with my menu planner-I spent all night Friday in line at the gas station to buy nearly $5 per gallon gas then came home and just sat and watched Hurricane Ike coverage. I really need to wean myself off the news for a bit-its just making me too depressed.

I'm not feeling inspired-well I am, but I'm so broke that we are sticking to large batch cooking and lots of leftovers this week. This menu sure won't be hard to stick to at all-not alot of planning or cooking required. I really feel like baking-but just discovered I'm out of flour. BOO to that.

Saturday- Corned Beef, Cabbage and Smashed Red Potatoes
Sunday- Leftovers
Monday- Chili and cornbread
Tuesday- Leftovers
Wednesday- Leftovers
Thursday-Pasta Bake and Salad
Friday- Leftovers

Angel Hair Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto

2008-09-09T19:10:00.009-04:00

Once again I fell off my meal plan bandwagon...I was supposed to be making a couple of new dishes-Turkish Chicken thighs and Curried Baked Brown Rice and Lentil Pilaf-but I rummaged through my freezer and found the chicken thighs I *thought* I had were non-existent. So for a short on time adjustment I pulled out some salmon fillets and figured I'd just grill them on the Georgey and browse some blogs for a side dish recipe while at work.

Can I just say, Gawd I love the food blogging community?! There are so many creative and amazing foodies out there and they've become such a great resource and source of entertainment for me. While browsing I came upon a blog called La Mia Cucina that I decided to add to my favorites because I really relate to her love of cooking and her sense of humor.

Through her blog, I read about a blogger who had recently passed. It was touching to read all the comments on her page from all of her food blogging friends. What an odd thing our Internet is-its almost ghostly in a way-these little biographies we will leave behind for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. I don't know why it seems so different than writing a book or a diary-but it does. Its a strange feeling of some sort of ongoing spirit. I can't really describe it...

Anyway-I decided to browse this woman named Sherry's recipes and make one in honor of her. Weird I know, but I just felt like I wanted to. She had recently made a simple dish of Angel Hair Pasta with Red Pepper Pesto that was perfect. I had all of the ingredients on hand thanks in part to my little garden! YAY! And...it involved pine nuts and I do love me some pine nuts.

Aren't the veggies pretty? Its so nice to just go out on the deck and pick what I need-rinse it off and use it. (I used the cucumber and the green pepper for a salad to go with my pasta)

Part of the recipe called for roasting your own peppers-and although I've seen it done before-I have never taken them time to do it myself. I'm a little freaked out by fire-but I chose a gas stove for my house-go figure...I'm just full of contradictions. Its sort of who I am. I think I rushed the charring a bit and they could have been charred a bit more-because I had a bit of a hard time peeling them.

Sans roasting the peppers-this recipe takes maybe 20 minutes total from start to finish to complete. Nice and easy and it tastes great too. Thanks to Sherry for sharing this great recipe with all of us!

Sherry's Angel Hair Pasta with Sweet Red Pepper Pesto

3 medium red bell peppers or bottled roasted red peppers

1 tablespoon pine nuts

1 small garlic clove, smashed

1/4 cup basil leaves, plus 2 tablespoons chopped basil

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 pound angel hair pasta

1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

1.Roast the red peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler, turning occasionally, until charred all over. Transfer the peppers to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let cool. Peel, core and chop the peppers.

2.In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over moderate heat until golden, about 4 minutes. Let cool.

3.Transfer the peppers and pine nuts to a blender or food processor. Add the garlic and whole basil leaves and blend until coarsely chopped.

4.Add the olive oil and cheese and puree to a chunky pesto. Season with salt and pepper.

5.In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and cool slightly under running water.

6.Transfer the pasta to a bowl and toss with the pesto. Season the pasta with salt and pepper.

7.Top with the chopped basil and pecorino and serve at room temperature.

??? Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies ???

2008-09-09T08:28:00.007-04:00

I developed a sweet craving last night around 9pm and didn't really have anything ready-made in the house to put a dent in it so I pulled out a cookbook and started skimming...I didn't want anything too labor intensive, and actually I thought I'd just whip up a batch of cookie dough and snack on some dough and then maybe bake the cookies the next day. I kept thinking chocolate chip and fell upon this Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from the Gooseberry Patch: Sweet and Simple Cookbook

Not a ton of ingredients and not much more work than mixing a few things together...nice and easy.

I love pumpkin so I figured this would be a winner. I wasn't really impressed though. the dough isn't really all that great for snacking on. SO I just went ahead and decided to bake the whole batch last night. the bake time was only 8 minutes so I figured I'd have the 3.5 dozen baked in no time.

I baked one batch for the allotted time and they just did seem done at all, and I am not someone who is afraid to take my cookies out a little under baked-I actually like them better that way. I love a soft gooey cookie. these-just seemed more than a little underdone. So the next batch I let bake an additional 2 minutes and checked them-they still seemed like they could continue baking...I added another 2 minutes and pulled them out. Still seemed the same.

I think these cookies just have a more cake like consistency. Which is fine-but I was going for cookie-not cake.

Another thing I wasn't thrilled with was the nutmeg-I just think there was too much in this recipe. I think maybe the addition of some brown sugar and maybe pumpkin pie spice instead of the 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of nutmeg would have made these better.

I do have to say though that my husband came home and was at first turned off by how soft the cookies were but when he tasted them he said he thought they were pretty good and gobbled up three of them right there. That's a feat in itself because this man is not much of a foodie and isn't impressed with much when it comes to food.

Then this morning I gave two to Red to take as a morning snack to school. He ate them in the car before we even arrived at school and said he liked them and a 3 year old has no qualms about letting you know when they DON'T like something they are eating.

So maybe they are tasty-I mean, they weren't gawd awful. *I* just think they could be better...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

6 oz chocolate chips

1.Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease cookie sheets.

2.In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix together.

3.Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and then add to pumpkin mixture. Stir well to combine.

4.Stir in chocolate chips and then drop by tablespoon onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes or until slightly browned.

Weekly Menu Planner-Just a Little Late...

2008-09-03T10:19:00.003-04:00

It was a busy weekend so I didn't get my meal plan done for this week until this morning. I'm feeling kind of uninspired and craving alot of bad food so I hope I'm able to pull off the meals this week. It would be nice if we get some rain to cool things off too. I love to cook when its rainy and cool.

Monday-Grilled chicken and pineapple kabobs, veggie fried rice
Tuesday-Leftovers
Wednesday-Turkish chicken thighs and curried brown rice and lentil pilaf
Thursday-Leftovers
Friday-Twirly Whirly Pizza and Salad
Saturday-Grilled T-bones with chimichurri, smashed red potatoes and roasted green beans
Sunday-Dinner Out!

Bar-B-Cups, Because Sometimes You Have to Improvise

2008-09-02T18:45:00.004-04:00

Yes, Yes, I made a menu plan...but just because I have a written menu plan-it does not mean I will suddenly leave behind my entire old unorganized self-cold-turkey and be able to stay on task all the time. Tonight is Kid's Choice night and I had planned on making some Grilled Nutter Butter Nana Sammiches and Triple Berry Smoothies-but when I went grocery shopping on Saturday-the bananas were looking too sad for me to waste my money on them so I passed them up.

I planned on picking some up at the store on lunch break today-but it was an insane day at work and I also had a lovely appointment with my fav doc-Dr. Joe, for an adjustment and deep tissue massage. Ahhhh, so the whole muscular zen thing got me all distracted and alas, the bananas melted from my mind along with all the other tension of the day.

Luckily though, there was a recipe posted on Taste and Tell, a rockin' blog I seem to be stalking and copying from pretty often as of late, that I wanted to try and had all of the ingredients on hand already.

The recipe is Bar-B-Cups and its totally a fun kid friendly recipe. I adapted it a bit so that it would be a little less fattening. I bought the reduced fat version of refrigerated biscuit dough and used some cooking spray to grease the muffin tins. The use of LEAN ground turkey made a difference in the fat and calorie count as well. I also cut the biscuits in half and used less biscuit in each muffin tin and more of the turkey.

**Side note-check out these really cute summery plates and tumblers I found at CVS for 75% the other day! SCORE! I know its the end of summer-but they can be used next season and they are kid friendly plastic and for 19 and 25 cents each you can't beat it.**

OK, back to the recipe-this takes less than 30 minutes to make. We had it with some steamed broccoli and baby corn spears.

Bar-B-Cups-My Adaptation of the ORIGINAL

1 lb. lean ground TURKEY
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 can reduced fat flaky refrigerated biscuits
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 12 muffin cups with cooking spray. In large skillet, brown ground turkey over medium heat until thoroughly cooked, stirring frequently. Drain. Stir in barbecue sauce, onion and brown sugar. Cook 1 minute to blend flavors, stirring constantly.Separate dough into 12 biscuits. Depending on the size of biscuits you buy-you might be able to cut each biscuit round in half and then place 1 biscuit in each muffin cup. Firmly press in bottom and up sides, forming 1/4-inch rim over edge of cup. Spoon about 1/4 cup turkey mixture into each biscuit-lined cup. Sprinkle each with cheese. Bake at 400°F. for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges of biscuits are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from muffin cups.

Easy 2 Minute Pesto

2008-08-30T13:51:00.007-04:00

Since the basil is ready to start harvesting and I do love pesto...my little sioux chef and I whipped up a quick batch this afternoon. Now if we can just keep ourselves from dipping tortilla chips in it and save some for the pasta dish I plan to make later in the week...

2 Minute Basil Pesto

1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

As demonstrated by my little sioux chef above...dump everything into blender or food processor and pulse until everything is chopped up and mixed together.

You may need to take a spatula and scrape the sides of the blender and pulse again a couple of times just to really blend everything together.

**You can also substitute walnuts or almonds for the pine nuts and add lemon juice or hot pepper flakes if you like.**

Yumm...pesto sammiches anyone?

This Week's Meal Plan: Aug 30-Sep 5

2008-08-30T12:53:00.003-04:00

I'm still kind of a in blah cooking funk right now-I have all of the recipes I *want* to try out-but once I get home from work in the evenings I just haven't felt like really getting into the kitchen and creating. Tracy's got a big competition today so we'll probably meet him later and have dinner out somewhere. I'm not feeling all that inspired this week so I'll duplicate alot of what we've had recently.

Saturday: dinner out...plus Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Homemade Pitas to snack on

Sunday: Baked Chicken Parmesan with Whole Wheat Lingine and Fresh Pesto

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Kids Choice Grilled Nutter Butter Nana Sammiches and Triple Berry Smoothies

Wednesday: Cat's Newspaper Chili, Salad

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Baked Chicken Chimichangas, Elote

Extras: lime-sugar-cookies

Garden Update: 5 months

2008-08-28T09:18:00.008-04:00

So its been about 5 months since I first planted my first round of seeds. I've learned plenty over the last few months and I am already making plans based on this years learning experience. I'm not so scared of planting things directly in the ground now. I can't wait to have a bountiful garden next season. I am sure that I'll be able to produce enough vegetables to feed our family both fresh and frozen and maybe some to take to the local farmer market and food bank.

What I have not yet learned is how to get rid of these disgusting little white aphid (?) bugs that seem to LOVE all things in the cabbage family. They are relentless. I'll have to work hard on that next year. I really want to have broccoli and Brussels sprouts in the garden because my family eats alot of those two veggies. I do have some little sprouts forming on the "trunk" of the little Brussels plant right now...so I might actually end up with a few sprouts this year.

Basil wins as being the best performer so far-it grows so quickly and abundantly and each time you pull off some leaves to use; within the next day or so the plant is covered back and full of more leaves to use. I can't use the basil fast enough! I'll be making a few batches of pesto to freeze this weekend.

There is really something about natural rain that makes the plants grow faster and green up more than water from a hose ever can. The rains we got over the last week really made things happen in the garden. Just take a look at how fast the cucumbers have developed, I only planted these about a month ago and they already have baby cucs!

I have also found out that apparently my peppers are destined to be sweet baby bells and NOT full size green peppers because they have started to change to a gorgeous red color already at their petite size. Isn't the color amazing?

Pumpkins also grow pretty quickly and its looking like we might have out little mini pumpkin patch in the backyard this year just in time for fall. They already have quite a few large pretty yellow orange blossoms.

This weekend I'm going to prepare another small section of the yard for planting some fall veggies. I've read that carrots, onions, lettuce, and greens like collards and spinach all do well in the fall. Its pretty mild here well into November so I hope to get a decent crop out of this next planting. I've been thinking about trying asparagus or potatoes too. Can't wait to see what this next round of seeds produce!

Brussels Sprouts: A Two for the Price of One Special!

2008-08-26T21:40:00.006-04:00

I know most people's idea of a delicious dinner doesn't usually involve Brussels sprouts, and more than likely if someone told you they were having them for dinner you would turn up your nose. BUT...that's only because you've probably been served the bitter, flavor-cooked-out-of-them, boiled Brussels sprouts of yesterday's family kitchen.

BEHOLD!

This is a whole new era of the Brussels sprout! I shall share with you two of my favorite (one is a brand new favorite) recipes for Brussels sprouts that are sure to convert you from a Brussels hater to a Brussels lover.

The first is from allrecipes.com. Its not terribly healthy with the addition of bacon to the dish-but I've used turkey bacon to make it a little healthier and it was still yummy.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts

1/2 pound sliced bacon
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup pine nuts
2 pounds Brussels sprouts, cored and shredded
3 green onions, minced
1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
pepper to taste

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons grease, crumble and set aside.
In the same skillet, melt butter in with reserved bacon grease over medium heat. Add pine nuts, and cook, stirring until browned. Add Brussels sprouts and green onions to the pan, and season with seasoning salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until sprouts are wilted and tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in crumbled bacon just before serving.

************************************************************************************

The next one is an all new favorite-I made it for the first time this week. It was a filling dish-that could be used as a meatless main dish or still could be a simple side dish.

Brussels Sprouts with White Beans and Parmesan

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 package frozen Brussels sprouts, thawed, cut in half lengthwise
4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup low-salt, low fat chicken broth

1 15-ounce can great northern beans, drained

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Add oil to skillet, add garlic and Brussels sprouts and cook for about 5 minutes until sprouts just begin to brown.

Add broth and beans and cook down for about another 1-2 minutes. Stir in Parmesan and season with a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper. Serve.

Chocolate Wave Zucchini Bread

2008-08-24T17:15:00.006-04:00

This one was inspired by another Foodie Blog I've been reading lately: Taste and Tell. She's got some gorgeous photos and a ton of recipes I'd like to try-you should definitely go check out her blog.

Now zucchini is one of the foods my husband refuses to eat...if you don't know us yet-my husband has an aversion to quite a few foods that I personally LOVE. So I will often times try to sneak those things into dishes to see if he will even notice. Sometimes I'm successful-other times-not so much. Well, zucchini went into the Chilaquiles Casserole the other day and he didn't notice, so I figured I try out this delicious looking bread recipe as well.

Well, he noticed the little green flecks in this one and asked about it-I told him it was spinach...hehehe...he believed it and ate two pieces. The kid also ate it. Score! So this recipe is a lovely way to get some veggies in that your kids might not normally eat.

I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose-I think that made it a little more dense-and I didn't use butter-I used a butter substitute. I also omitted the walnuts.

The bread comes out moist and rich with a nice texture and its pretty with the presentation as well. My "wave" didn't turn out as pretty as the one on Taste and Tell but it was interesting all the same. not bad for a first try. I think when I make this again-I'll experiment with piping the chocolate batter into the zucchini batter for a different design.

Chocolate Wave Zucchini Bread

1/3 cup butter

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Mix in eggs.

Add zucchini, water, and vanilla; stir. Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice. Stir in nuts.

Divide batter in half*, and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips to one of the halves.

Pour plain batter into bottom of the loaf pan. Pour chocolate batter on top of plain batter.**(I poured about 3/4 of the plain better into the loaf pan and then spooned the chocolate batter down the middles. I then spooned the remaining plain batter on either side of the chocolate batter).

Bake until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes, and remove from pan. Store in refrigerator.

*keep the chocolate "half" at just less than half the batter.

Chilaquiles Casserole with Pico De Gallo

2008-08-23T18:33:00.004-04:00

Tex-Mex + Casserole = YUM.

I'm all about an easy meal. I'm also all about a good casserole. Stuffed full of cheesy, veggie, and meaty goodness-they are a one dish comfort food dinner. That's usually a recipe for disaster on the calorie front but once again eatingwell.com I'm becoming an eatingwell.com junkie or something. I've been pleased with every recipe I've tried from the site so far.

The zucchini and sweet corn add a nice sweetness to the dish. I had to make a few modifications, and I was pleased with the end result. i used my favorite tortillas (Extreme Fiber Tortillas) in place of corn tortillas and I liked the results. This was almost like a Tex Mex lasagna.

Chilaquiles Casserole

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 19-ounce can black beans, rinsed
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 1/2 cups corn, frozen (thawed) or fresh
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 corn tortillas, quartered
1 19-ounce can mild red or green enchilada sauce
1 1/4 cups shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring often, until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in zucchini, beans, tomatoes, corn, cumin and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are heated through, about 3 minutes.
3. Scatter half the tortilla pieces in the baking dish. Top with about half the vegetable mixture, about half the enchilada sauce and half the cheese. Repeat with one more layer of tortillas, vegetables, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil.
4. Bake the casserole for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the casserole is bubbling around the edges and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes more.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 245 calories; 10 g fat (4 g sat, 4 g mono); 23 mg cholesterol; 31 g carbohydrate; 9 g protein; 6 g fiber; 351 mg sodium; 272 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (25% daily value), Fiber (24% dv), Vitamin A (15% dv).

Here's how I modifed the recipe:

~I used Extreme Fiber tortillas and I only used 8 of them instead of 12 corn tortillas.

~I also added ground turkey and a packet of Sazon seasoning.

~I forgot to get enchilada sauce so I used 1 14 oz can of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes and chilis in place of it.

~I used only about a 1/2 cup of cheese.

Weekly Menu Planner: Aug 23-29

2008-08-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

Go ME! I actually stuck to my meal plan this past week and made everything I had planned to make. Really made my week much easier. I'm not really feeling the whole meat and poultry thing this week. Its summer and I tend to get sick of really heavy food this time of year. My husband has a hard time accepting a plate of food without any "meat" on it though so I'll throw some in there just to be nice to him.

Saturday~Ham Steaks, Speedy Spinach Quiche, Salad

Sunday~Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Pita Triangles, greek salad

Monday~Baked Chops, Brussel Sprouts with White Beans, Smashed Red Potatoes

Tuesday~Leftovers

Wednesday~Chicken Florentine Rice Casserole, Marinated Tomato Salad

Thursday~Leftovers

Friday~Oven Baked Chimichangas, Corn and Black Bean Salsa

**Extras~Chocolate Zucchini Bread and a batch of pesto to freeze.

Red's "Super Muscle Yum" Smoothie and Pancake Puffs

2008-08-21T21:14:00.006-04:00

Super. Muscle.Yum. That's what the almost 4 year old in the house has decided his latest smoothie concoction should be called. He claims it will give you big muscles like Superman. There are no studies to back this up, but his testimony alone should make you run to your blenders to make some right away!

He really did make this one up, he just tells me what he wants in it and we blend it up in the blender and taste. this one was not half bad. I could see adding oats or flax or even granola for texture and even more protein. We didn't really measure-so this is all estimation...

Super Muscle Yum Smoothie

1 container Light Banana Cream Pie Yogurt

a touch of milk

2 tbsp peanut butter

2 tbsp honey

1/2 cup frozen banana slices

1/2 cup frozen mango chunks

6-8 ice cubes

Throw it all in a blender-liquidy ingredients first. Blend until smooth. Drink. Get big muscles.

Pancake Puffs really have nothing to do with this recipe but the kid becomes mesmerized every time he sees the infomercial for this product on TV. HE stands there almost salivating as he watches them fill these little donut style puffy pancakes with things like strawberry sauce and chocolate whipped cream. Then he jumps up and down and says, "Mommy! Mommy! We NEED to get that! We NEED Pancake Puffs!"

Shoot, we NEED this? Well damn, I had no idea! I'm totally going to have to look into buying this Pancake Puff contraption, which you already know is $19.99 plus s&h. I am a bit disappointed though that there's no "order now and receive TWO pancake puff pans for the same low price" offer. Ah well, I guess its worth it though-I mean who doesn't love to eat sweet doughy goodness stuffed with gooey goodness?

People are talking about these little round puffy balls of goodness...I googled and quickly came across blog after blog post about them. Miss FickleMedia was convinced by a young wise one to get the pan and it has changed her life! diversionwednesday calls it the "future of food." and Domestic Spaz quite a few others are talking about the joy pancake puffs have brought to their children's lives.

How could i even consider depriving my child of the utter elation a pancake puff provides? I guess I'll be making a Target run sometime this weekend...there are rumors that Target carries this culinary gadget from heaven.

Napa Cabbage with Carrots and Rice Wine Oyster Sauce

2008-08-20T19:12:00.005-04:00

I should rename this to UN-Napa Cabbage with Carrots...I could not find Napa Cabbage at any of my local grocers. Boo! to that. I really have a poor and limited selection here when it comes to produce. I just have to drive too far to get to Whole Foods or any decent grocer with a wide variety of produce and I loathe driving in this city. Traffic is horrendous. Anyway...

I figured I could use plain old green cabbage in place of the Napa. Here's the problem with that-Napa is a little more delicate than green cabbage and therefore cooks faster. Super Genius that I am-I didn't adjust the cooking time so my cabbage was a little underdone. It wasn't quite tender-crisp as the recipe calls for. The carrots were perfect though and I think I can see myself just making a carrot side dish in the future with the rice wine oyster sauce.

The flavor was still good though and I know that had I just cooked the cabbage a bit longer it would have been delicious. So thanks to eatingwell.com for another really great recipe! I served it with my Salmon Patties and some Wasabi Mayo. Click HERE for my sinfully easy Salmon Patty recipe.

Napa Cabbage with Carrots and Rice Wine Oyster Sauce

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot (1 large)

2 teaspoons minced garlic

4 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage (about 8 ounces)

1 cup thinly sliced carrot (1 large)

Rice Wine-Oyster Sauce (recipe follows)

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or large skillet over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Swirl canola oil into the pan, add shallot and garlic and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add cabbage and carrot and stir-fry until the cabbage just begins to wilt, about 1 minute. Stir Rice Wine-Oyster Sauce and swirl it into the pan; cook for 30 seconds. Stir-fry until the cabbage and carrot are tender-crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in sesame oil. Serve immediately.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 119 calories; 8 g fat (1 g sat, 5 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 9 g carbohydrate; 2 g protein; 2 g fiber; 235 mg sodium; 142 mg potassium

Rice Wine Oyster Sauce

1 tablespoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry

2 teaspoons oyster-flavored sauce or vegetarian oyster sauce

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

Whisk rice wine (or sherry), oyster sauce, sugar and salt in a small bowl.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 9 calories; 0 g fat (0 g sat, 0 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 1 g carbohydrate; 0 g protein; 0 g fiber; 201 mg sodium; 1 mg potassium.

Wasabi Mayo

2 tbsp light or fat free mayo

wasabi paste (to taste)

Mix together mayo and wasabi paste. Add the wasabi a little bit at a time as a little goes a long way. Serve alongside salmon patties for dipping.

Citrus Chicken with Roasted Green Beans and Red Peppers

2008-08-19T18:30:00.000-04:00

This is my favorite way to roast chicken at home. Its simple-not a ton of ingredients or prep work; and it tastes fresh and light. The green beans are terribly easy as well. Roasting time in the oven is about an hour and a half-but that's time you spend doing something else. Make your green beans after you have pulled your chicken out of the oven to rest. You have to turn up the heat to roast them and they only take about ten minutes, by the time the beans are done the juices in the chicken should have redistributed and you can slice it and plate it with your green beans.

Citrus Chicken

1 roaster chicken

1/2 small navel orange

1/2 lemon

1/2 small onion

olive oil

kosher salt

black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350. Rinse and clean roaster chicken and pat dry with some paper towels.

2. place in a baking dish or roasting pan.

3. Salt outside of bird and cavity.

4. Halve your orange, lemon and onion and stuff pieces into the chicken cavity.

5. Pepper the bird and then rub a good amount of olive oil all over the outside of bird.

6. Roast according to packaging instructions for bird weight-usually about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. I like to baste the chicken every 15 minutes or so while it is roasting.

7.Take chicken out of oven and let rest for about 5-10 minutes before carving. This gives the juices the opportunity to redistribute themselves into the meat and makes for a very juicy bird.

Roasted Green Beans with Red Peppers

1 pound fresh green beans

1 red bell pepper-julienne strips

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 500. Wash and trim green beans and toss in a bowl with red pepper strips

2. Add tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper and toss together.

3. Place in an even layer on a baking pan and roast for about ten minutes. Turning the beans after about five minutes. When you take them out they should be just beginning to brown.

**TIP** I cover my roasting pan in aluminum foil. This makes for easy cleanup. I can just pull off the aluminum foil and toss it-no pans to wash.

Weekly Menu: Aug 16-Aug 22

2008-08-16T07:10:00.001-04:00

I've decided to start my weekly meal planning on Saturdays every week...I know you are just dying to know why right about now -aren't you? Well I'm just all unpredictable and crazy like that! Living on the edge-that's me! RIIIIIGGGHHHT then. So, really I'm doing that because its just more logical for me. Saturday is my first day off, I usually spend it grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, sticking around the house. See-I told you I am like totally living on the edge!

Really though, I get my cooking for the week started on Saturday and have more time to play around with recipes and stuff. I often times make enough on Saturday and Sunday to carry over into Monday meals anyway. So there it is. My FOOD week starts on Saturday.

Saturday: Poached Salmon w/ Creamy Piccatta Sauce, Herbed Couscous w/ Tomatoes, Salad

Sunday: Citrus Chicken with Roasted Green Beans and Red Peppers, Fruited Rice Pilaf

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday: Salmon Patties w/ Wasabi Mayo, Sweet Potato Fries, Napa Cabbage and Carrots

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Chilaquiles Casserole, Pico De Gallo, Mexican Rice

Friday: Leftovers

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

2008-08-15T09:08:00.011-04:00

These don't fall in line with our quest for cleaner healthier eating, but like I said before you can't completely deprive yourself..and its for the kids! Red is having an "End of Summer" party at pre-school today so we went with Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes as our party food contribution. We did use fat free angel food cake mix for the cupcakes though-so that cut down on the fat a little bit.

Here's Red-ever so happy to be going to his party today, fully decked out in his tie-dye shirt (made at school and required attire for the event) and silly sunglasses...

OK, so back to the cupcakes-they are terribly easy to make.

What you need (just the basics you can get fussier and fancier if you want):

1 box of flat bottom ice cream cones

1 box of cake mix, eggs, oil, water

Frosting and sprinklers for decoration

Ice Cream scoop or small ladle

What you do:

~First you prepare the cake batter as instructed on the box (or make your own from scratch-I'm lazy so I use boxed cake mix). Line up your cones on a flat baking sheet or place them in muffin tins.

~Using an ice cream scoop or small ladle, scoop up some batter and put into each cone-being sure to only fill it about 1/2 way full. I have found that an ice cream scoop provides about the perfect amount of batter for the cones. If you overfill it the batter will bake up and over the top and onto the cookie sheet-still tastes good-just not very pretty.

~Place the filled cones into the oven and bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes.

~Remove from oven, let cool and then frost and decorate.

~Yay! Cupcakes!

Whole Wheat Couscous with Parm and Peas

2008-08-13T08:52:00.004-04:00

If you know me-you know that I am a side dish as a main dish queen. I like meat/chicken/fish...but really love foods that are considered sides more than anything. During my weak moments of buttery, cheesy, greasy,cholesterol-y indulgence-you could see me plopped in a wooden chair at the Cracker Barrel dining on lovely down home versions of mac and cheese, collard greens, green beans, squash casserole and cheesy hash brown casserole. Ahhh...comfort food at its finest, and hey I was getting my veggies too, right?

Well, the aging metabolism decided to slow herself down and bestow some 40 inch hips upon my little frame-so the days of creamy cheesy bliss are over for me. I still allow myself the occasional 6 Cheese Baked Mac N Cheese or Loaded Baked Potato Salad complete with gobs of mayo, bacon and cheese. I know me and completely depriving myself would just mean failure.

I also know though that I have found that I love fresh, often times raw foods. I love the clean taste and the lightness of them. I have always loved a fresh crisp salad loaded up with veggies. One of my favorite snacks is shelled, blanched and chilled edamame.

So anyway, after that long drawn out and unnecessary explanation about my love of side dishes...here's what I made for dinner last night: Whole Wheat Couscous with Parmesan and Peas It was delicious! I found it posted on Eatingwell.com-which is a recipe site I just discovered recently. *I* could eat this as a main dish for dinner with a nice green salad. It was filling and at about 200 calories per serving, I would call it hip and boo-tay friendly. It was also quick and fracktastically easy. That's one of the great things about couscous-it literally takes only a few minutes to prepare-start to finish.

I did make some lemon garlic chicken tenders to go with, as my husband is a protein freak-he is an athlete and a true carnivore so there's no getting around the "meat" in this house. this recipe has about 10g of protein by itself-but you will never convince this man that you can get enough protein without some tuna or poultry thrown in somewhere.

I forgot to upload the picture of it to my online photobook so I'll have to post that later.

OK-so...make this stuff. Its elegant and easy and yumm.

1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup whole-wheat couscous
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Combine broth, water and oil in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Stir in couscous and remove from heat. Cover and let plump for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, cook peas on the stovetop or in the microwave according to package directions.
3. Add the peas, dill, lemon zest, salt and pepper to the couscous; mix gently and fluff with a fork. Serve hot, sprinkled with cheese.

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 208 calories; 4 g fat (1 g sat, 2 g mono); 6 mg cholesterol; 35 g carbohydrate; 10 g protein; 7 g fiber; 186 mg sodium.

**the only thing I did differently was dumped the parmesan in and mixed it into the entire batch. **

Tuesday's Weekly Planner: Aug 4-10

2008-08-05T09:05:00.002-04:00

Meh, I'm always a day late a dollar short so the theme might as well carry over into my weekly meal planning too. Hey-at least I'm consistent people-you can at least give me that , right?
Its Tuesday and I am planning my meals for the week now. Mondays are just too depressing to even try to be organized and Sundays-well Sundays are family days for us and frankly, I just don't feel the need to do anything productive on Sundays.

That being said here is the plan for this week:

Monday- Sunday Night Chili Leftovers and a ginormous tossed salad.
Tuesday-Brown Sugar Garlic Chicken, Veggie Fried Rice
Wednesday-Leftovers
Thursday-Crockpot Chicken and White Beans with Tomatillas, Mexican Rice
Friday-Leftovers
Saturday- Tex Mex Pumpkin Patties, Spicy Black Beans and Rice, Mixed Greens Salad
Sunday-Citrus Roast Chickens, Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Lemon Almond Green Beans

Banana Pineapple Loaf: 135 calories a slice!

2008-08-03T20:28:00.007-04:00

We were over-run by fruit flies last week. Gawd I loathe those things and they are NOT easy to get rid of. It seems almost inevitable that we get them down here. Every grocery store seems to have them and then you are bound to bring them home with you. DEEEEZ-gusting. Anyway, because of that any fruit I get has to be stored in the fridge-and bananas do not do nice things in the fridge. So I had about three bananas left that were brown and when you have brown bananas about the only to do with them is bake something.

I am not trying to completely blow my quest for hotness though so I figured I'd throw together this low fat/ low cal banana loaf that I've made once before. Its terribly easy and at only 135 calories a slice its pretty diet friendly.

Banana Pineapple Loaf

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup mashed banana

1 can un-drained crushed pineapple

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to about 350. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine sifted dry ingredients, sugar and walnuts in a large bowl. Stir in banana, pineapple and eggs. Spoon into prepared pan and bake in a moderate oven for 1 1/4 hours (or until a skewer inserted comes out clean). Stand 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.

**I added coconut flakes to mine. I think chocolate chips or macadamia nuts would probably be really good too.**

Garden Update: Tuesday July 29, 2008

2008-07-29T14:13:00.009-04:00

At ten days in here is the little mini -garden we just planted! Everything has begun to sprout except the Cilantro. The Dill has two TINY little sprouts and and onions have little green threads poking up from the soil.

The sunflowers were the first to sprout, then the beans and pumpkins.

Pole Beans

Pumpkins

Sunflowers

Update from the container garden on the deck:

We have a little tiny crown of broccoli forming!

Tons of Peppers

The cucumber plants are growing quickly too

And finally the brussel sprout plants are fighting back after the destructive cabbage worms nearly destroyed them.

Chicken and Cilantro Week- Recipes 3 and 4 ???

2008-07-26T15:08:00.000-04:00

See that? What? You mean you don't see anything? Well that's because the final two recipes of Chicken and Cilantro week were never cooked. Some dillhole in the house turned the refrigerator setting to "Antartic Cold" and froze all the veggies in my produce drawer-my cilantro was ruined! So I went out and found a stupid plaque to hang on the wall to remind the boys that this is MY kitchen-just stay out and don't touch anything!

Ah well-it is what it is. I do plan on making both of them sometime soon though-the Chicken Encilantrada sounds like it would be great with some corn tortillas and some queso fresco.

Chicken and Cilantro Week-Recipe #2: Chicken and Manadarin Oranges

2008-07-23T09:49:00.004-04:00

Chicken and Mandarin Oranges (as posted on allrecipes.com)

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 (4 ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges
1 small onion, chopped
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Hot cooked rice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro

In a small bowl, combine the salt, ginger and pepper. Sprinkle over both sides of chicken. In a nonstick skillet, saute chicken in oil for 2 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chicken to plate and keep warm.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Drain oranges, reserving juice. Stir juice, onion and red pepper flakes into skillet. Cook and stir for about 3 minutes or until onion is tender. Bring to a boil. Return chicken to skillet. Reduce heat; cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until chicken juices run clear. Place chicken over rice; keep warm. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for about 2 minutes or until mixture is thickened. Add mandarin oranges; heat through. Pour sauce over chicken. Sprinkle with cilantro.

My Notes:

I liked this-it was light and fresh tasting. I did use more oranges and more juice than the recioe called for though and I also added broccoli to it and then some cashews when I plated the dish. Serve with brown rice.

Nice and easy work week dinner recipe.

Chicken and Cilantro Week-Recipe #1: Trinidad Stewed Chicken

2008-07-22T20:12:00.004-04:00

Trinidad Stewed Chicken as posted on allrecipes.com

1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (optional)
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon butter

Place chicken on a plate. Sprinkle the green onion, cilantro, garlic, onion, salt and pepper over it. Cover, and marinate for 30 minutes.

Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pot over medium heat. Stir in the sugar, and cook until the sugar has melted into a nice golden brown syrup. Add the chicken pieces, and brown quickly while turning continuously. Cover the pot, and let it cook for 2 minutes.

Pour in 1 cup of water, coconut milk and pepper flakes. Replace the lid, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir in the ketchup and butter. Continue cooking until chicken is fork tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper if needed. Serve chicken with the sauce in the pot as a gravy.

*************************************************************************************
My Notes:

I'm not so sure how I feel about this one-the taste is decent, but I think something is missing. Maybe some more heat? Chunks of tomatoes? Maybe even some lentils?

I think I'm not very keen on the whole "coconut" in savory style dishes. Not sure what it is-but I had a coconut-cilantro rice dish once that I couldn't even stomach. I thought it was just a fluke-bad cook or something, but this almost gave me the same feeling. This is not that bad-but its just not great in my opinion either. I think though my palette just might not enjoy that flavor combo.

I do think I might try to make it again though-sans coconut milk and maybe even sans cilantro. The beginning part of the recipe alone smells fantastic so I think that might make a great dish. The brown sugar, garlic, onion black pepper and salt with the chicken really smells almost sweet and nutty as it cooks together.

Like I say-it wasn't bad-just maybe not my thing, or might just need something else to make it really come to life. I should also say that the broth that it makes tastes very much like an Indian Soup. I think that's why I feel like maybe lentils might really make the dish.

Its Chicken and Cilantro Week!

2008-07-22T09:47:00.008-04:00

That's right people-in honor of all things chicken-y and cilantro-y this week's menu plan will be full of things that include chicken and cilantro in the recipe. Really-I took a look in the produce drawer and saw I had a bunch of cilantro that really needed to be used quickly and I know I've got a truckload of chicken breasts in the deep freezer.

I'm trying to be as efficient as possible with cooking so it will give me more time to work out in the evenings after work and more time to have my meals prepared and packaged for the next day. The more advance planning and prep I have done, the more likely I will be to stick to my meal plan and not only save money but also lose weight.

Here's the meal plan recipe list for the week:

Trinidad Stewed Chicken,Caribbean White Beans, Red Rice

Chicken and Mandarin Oranges, Greens Beans with Almonds, Soba Noodles

Spicy Cuban Mojo Chicken with Mango-Avocado Salsa, Black Beans with Lime and Cilantro

Chicken Encilantrada-I'm thinking I will stuff this into tortillas with some queso fresco.

Sofrito (making a batch to freeze)

Arroz Con Pollo

All of these recipes are fairly low fat and low calorie-or can be adjusted to make them that way. While I was searching for new recipes to try I came across quite a few delicious Thai recipes-but the calorie count was insane.

Be on the lookout for recipe reviews, adjustments and pictures this week!

Garden Update: 4 months

2008-07-19T18:20:00.009-04:00

I have finally planted some seed in the ground! Its just a small 5x3 plot-but its a start. I'm tired as hell from shoveling and raking all day to get the little plot together. I broke up and dug up that hard red clay we have here and had to break up a bunch of shale, limestone and rock too. Our yard backs up to a hilly ridge line and there is just a ridiculous amount of rock in the ground. I was just so tired of waiting to rent a tiller and I knew shoveling and working in that heat would do some much needed calorie burning so Red and I covered ourselves in bug spray and got out there and busted our humps.

I bought a bag of sand and two bags of garden soil and filled the trench with it and then we planted our seeds. I think in two weeks I will do the same thing to the area right next to this plot. Maybe by August I can have four of these little plots going and then Red and I can make homemade stepping stones to go in between. the plots.

I also have to add the timbers along the perimeter of the plots and probably wrap some fencing around it all to keep critters out.

Oh and yeah...in true Clumsy Cathee form I think I may have broken a bone in my hand while "hammering" those stakes into the ground. Nice.Very nice-and to be expected. I can't do anything physical without injuring myself. at least its my left hand and its not impeding everything I do.

We planted pumpkins, pole beans, onions, dill, cilantro, and sunflowers. Weird combo-but most of that is seed packets my mom sent me in the mail and then some old seeds I had laying around the house. Seed packets have expiration dates on them, but I'm not so sure I trust them. the cucmbers I planted below came from an old seed packet that had an expiration date of Oct 2006!

I also started some basil a few weeks ago and some cucumbers. They are in containers up on the deck. They are coming along nicely. It only took them about two days to sprout.

Cabbage worms tore up my brussel sprouts and broccoli-but they are making a comeback after I desperately reached for the sevin-dust to annihilate those greedy bastards. They almost obliterated my plants in one day. I have no idea where the things came from-but there was TONS of them.

The peppers are coming along nicely. I have at least 10-12 buds on each plant and there are at least 3-4 little peppers growing on each plant right now.

The beans and the peas...well-they bit the dust. The beans were looking nice until we got a big rainstorm one night and they sat in a water-logged swampy mess for about three days. The container they were in had no drainage and I was a bad gardener and didn't pay them any attention or bother to drain off any of the water for a couple of days. Oh well-lesson learned: proper drainage is important afterall!

An Unauthentic Brazilian Feijoada

2008-07-19T18:01:00.004-04:00

Feijoada is the National Dish of Brazil. Every restaurant serves it everyone eats it. Well at least that's what I'm told I've never been to Brazil, so I'm just gonna take my Brazilian friends' word for it. It basically consists of meats and beans. Its like a stew or a chili.

I found a recipe for a Brazilian Black Bean Stew on allrecipes and modified it a bit based on what I had in my pantry. Here's what I came up with-and let me tell you this stuff is good.

Unauthentic Brazilian Feijoada

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 pound cooked ham, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (1 pound) sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 small green pepper diced

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 small can salsa
1 1/2 cups water
1 (16 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

black pepper

cayenne pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and brown the ground turkey. Add cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Add ham and onion and garlic to the pot, and cook until tender. Then add the sweet potatoes, green pepper, tomatoes with juice, salsa, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 15 -20 minutes, until sweet potatoes are tender.

Add the beans and cook for another 15 minutes or so. Add in mango and cilantro, and season with salt, pepper.

Serve with rice or warm pitas or even naan would be good with it.

The original recipe calls for the use of chorizo-I didn't have any which is why I used ground turkey instead. I've made this with chorizo before and it tastes pretty much the same-just a little fattier.

Wedding Soup: Improv Style

2008-07-13T12:06:00.003-04:00

I {HEART} Wedding Soup. Its one of my favorites. Its a perfect comfort food with some crusty bread. Sure its July-in Georgia-and should be around 95 degrees later today-but its raining right now and what would be better than some soup and crusty bread?

I decided to use this recipe from allrecipes.com, as a base for building my soup:

California Italian Wedding Soup
1/2 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped Italian flat leaf parsley (optional)
2 green onions, sliced (optional)
5 3/4 cups chicken broth
2 cups finely sliced escarole (spinach may be substituted)
1 lemon, zested
1/2 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta), uncooked
grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Mix together the meat, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, basil, parsley, and green onions; shape into 3/4 inch balls.
Pour broth into a large saucepan over high heat. When boiling, drop in meatballs. Stir in escarole, lemon zest and orzo. Return to a boil; reduce heat to medium. Cook at a slow boil for 10 minutes or until orzo is tender, stirring frequently. Serve sprinkled with cheese.

Here's what I had to change:

Ground Beef-we don't buy it-only ground turkey in this house
Egg-didn't have any thanks to them falling out of the cart in the parking lot
Fresh basil-had to use dried instead
Green onions-Didn't have any
Escarole-used frozen spinach instead
Lemon-didn't have one so I used some lemon pepper instead
Orzo-none in the pantry used pasta shells instead
Bread crumbs-didn't have any of this either

So its pretty much a wonder why I even bothered to make this with all the ingredients I was missing...All in all though the soup turned out good anyway. I just mixed some grated Parmesan and dried basil and parsley in with the ground turkey then rolled it int0 balls. I made my chicken broth from the chicken bouillon I get in the Latin grocery section. I added some sliced baby carrots for some color.

Red Pepper Lemon Chicken

2008-06-29T22:09:00.007-04:00

Ok...This is recipe gets four T's.

Totally Yum.

Totally Easy.

Totally Quick.

Totally Healthy.

I found it while searching on http://www.myrecipes.com/ . It was originally published in Sunset magazine.

The lemon that you add at the end really makes the dish. Its a clean tasting dish with inexpensive basic ingredients. Make it. Eat it. Enjoy it.

Red Pepper Lemon Chicken

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 boned skinned chicken breast halves (8 oz. each)

2 large shallots, minced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken stock

1 jar (7 oz.) roasted red peppers, drained and sliced

1 can (15 oz.) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

About 1/2 tsp. salt

About 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Shredded zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup freshly and finely shredded parmesan

1.Preheat oven to 375°. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy ovenproof frying pan (not nonstick) over high heat until oil is hot but not smoking. Add chicken breasts, top side down, and cook until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn chicken over.

2.Add shallots and garlic to pan with chicken, stirring occasionally so garlic doesn't burn, until shallots are soft and translucent, 3 to 4 minutes. Add chicken stock, roasted red peppers, cannellini beans, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook until mixture begins to boil, about 1 minute.

3.Cover pan and put in oven. Bake 14 to 16 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through (cut to check). Transfer chicken to a plate.

4.Season roasted red pepper-cannelini bean-stock mixture with salt and pepper to taste and stir in lemon juice and zest. Divide vegetables among 4 rimmed plates or shallow pasta bowls, top each with a piece of chicken, and spoon sauce over all. Garnish with parmesan.

Here's how I had to modify the recipe:

~I don't have real parmesan shredded cheese at home. Cheese is frackin' expensive right now-so we just aren't indulging in it much these days. I did although, have a container of the fake processed grated parmesan in the fridge. I used that and instead of putting it on at the end-I put it on before it went into the oven.

~I also did not have shallots-they are somewhat of a luxury produce item as well. I did have onions though so I chopped up about 1/4 of a small white onion and used it in place of the shallots.

Low Fat Gluten Free Bluberry Muffins

2008-06-29T09:52:00.005-04:00

Red and I made this last week for my husband's birthday. He's in training mode so he scrutinizes calories and fat in everything he eats right now. I found this gluten free muffin mix at the store and figured we would try it with just a few adjustments. We substituted 4 egg whites in place of 2 eggs and used skim milk and also used 3 tbsp applesauce to replace half the required butter. We added frozen blueberries and then I sprinkled the tops of some of the muffins with brown sugar and diced walnuts.

They weren't bad...decent enough for a mild sweet craving and at about 100 calories per muffin-diet friendly.

First its Gazpacho, Then its Gone.

2008-06-28T18:33:00.004-04:00

After driving home in Friday evening traffic with no AC in the blazing Georgia heat-after a week of sitting in at work in a tin nearly uninsulated building with virtually no AC in there either-all I could think of was something cold and refreshing to have for dinner last night so I started rummaging through the produce drawer in the fridge and the cabinets. I'd been eating salads for lunch all week so I wasn't really feeling that...then it came to me...GAZPACHO!

I love gazpacho! I am a cold food lover, especially in this heat. I'd like nothing better than to spend the remainder of the summer eating salads, sandwiches, hummus and dips. I love cold fried chicken with ketchup or ice cold shrimp cocktail. Shoot give me a plate of cold spaghetti and I'm a happy camper.

Look-I never claimed to normal or refined did I?

Anyway-I figured I make a batch of gazpacho up while I waited for my camera batteries to charge. There would be plenty to photograph for the blog later on, right?

WRONG. During the night we had a bit of a dramatic event here at the house-a sin my husband was in a car accident. He's fine-no injuries. Just a big headache is all and financial stresses. that being said-what do most of us do when we stress? We eat. We binge. We wallow and drown our sorrows in our food.

I reached for the gazpacho like it was a bottle of vino or a pint of Godiva Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream. I ate and ate and ate until I had so much acidic tomatoes that I had a lump in my throat from reflux. That was some great gazpacho.

So here's a picture of what's left of the gazpacho:

The sticky frog is there for artistic affect.

...and the recipe...

Binge Inducing Gazpacho

1 can petite diced tomatoes
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp EVOO
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
1 /2 small onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
a couple of dashes of hot pepper sauce (I used Louisiana Red Hot)
kosher salt

Put a little under half the can of tomatoes, along with the water and oil into a blender or food processor until soupy. Pour into bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Stir and then season with a bit of kosher salt until you reach the flavor you enjoy. Put in the fridge. Eat. Yum.

Pork Carnitas with EXTREME FIBER Tortillas

2008-06-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Extreme Fiber Tortillas by La Banderita are one of my new favorite grocery store finds. They pack a whopping 12 grams of fiber in each tortilla and have 8 grams pf protein and are only 72 calories each!You can find them at http://www.olemexicanfoods.com/ I use them with everything now to give me that extra fiber to help with weight loss.

Today I made some carnitas in the crock pot with another favorite product-Goya's Mojo Crijollo. Its basically a marinade made from bitter orange, lemon and onion and garlic.

I found a slow cooker Carnitas recipe on Epicurious.com- so I figured I could use my Mojo marinade instead of what the recipe called for and throw it in the crock pot with my boneless country style pork ribs and some sliced onion and baby bell peppers.

Here's my recipe:

Carnitas with Mojo

1 1.5 pound package country style boneless pork ribs

1 bottle mojo Criollo marinade

1 small quartered and sliced

3-4 baby bells (I used orange and red)

Put all ingredients into crock pot and cook on high for about 4 hours-or until pork is falling apart. With a slotted spoon transfer pork to cutting board and pull apart with fingers. If you want you can remove the onions and peppers and discard or you can serve it along with the carnitas.

Serve in warmed tortillas with cilantro, lime, and queso fresco. You can top with salsa if you like. I prefer to top mine with queso fresco a twist of lime, cilantro and a bit of tomatilla salsa.

Blackberries: Picking and Freezing

2008-06-22T10:25:00.020-04:00

Red spent last week at work with me, and one of the days he was there we walked the trail around the softball fields and found wild blackberries growing in the brush. I remember going to the edge of the woods or the fence line dividing my auntie's yard from her neighbor's when I was a kid and just sitting in the grass picking berries and eating them with my cousin.

I figured Red might get a kick out of picking them and then bringing them home to eat. Needless to say -Red looks impressed in the pictures below-but once he tasted one he wasn't so into it. Blackberries are pretty tart and the seeds turn some people off. They are great in pies and sauces and tarts though.

Most of the berries aren't ripe yet-but I didn't want to let the ones that are go to waste so today I went out on my own to pick them. Its probably much easier to pick them on a farm-but I've got free berries at my fingertips so I'm going to take the risk. here are plenty of snakes in the brush, so I was wary of that. Plus, the berry plants have tons of thorns on them-I just threw on a pair of gardening gloves and sprayed myself down in bug repellent. Nasty red bugs love the plants, i.e. Chiggers. I got attacked by red bugs a few weeks ago and I am not in a big hurry to deal with that again. Imagine intense itching that doesn't stop even with layers of calamine lotion, hydro cortisone and fifteen other anti-itch creams, oils and lotions.

Anyway, I got about a pint of berries from picking today. Not quite enough to much with so I will freeze them for later. I'm pretty obsessed with the idea of baking tarts right now and a blackberry tart sounds fabulous to start my tart making extravaganza.

Freezing berries is really pretty simple-so simple I feel silly even blogging the instructions, but there was a time in the past when I wasn't sure how to do it and googled it myself-so maybe this will help someone else.

This method works well for pretty much all berries, I've done it with blueberries and raspberries before when I had picked them up in bulk.

First wash your berries in a colander. Gently rinse them and then let them drip dry in the colander for about 10 minutes.

Empty them to a paper towel to absorb any remaining liquid. Don't squeeze or press them. just blot them gently and let the paper towel absorb the rest of the water.

Spread the berries out on a baking sheet or other pan with a lip on it. Doing this instead of just dumping the berries into a bag and freezing helps them not only freeze faster but they freeze individually and not in one big clump. This allows you to use only what you need and put the rest back in the freezer without having to defrost an entire bag.

The berries will freeze quickly-usually within a couple of hours. I put mine in my deep freezer-its colder than my regular freezer. Once they have frozen, you can then dump them into freezer bags and put them back in the freezer for later use.

Now, I'm off to search for the perfect blackberry tart recipe to test out.

Purrty Sweet Cornbread

2008-06-22T10:22:00.007-04:00

Not a huge fan of cornbread myself...maybe because I wasn't really raised on it. Kind of like grits-not too big on that either. They love the stuff down here in the South though-they serve it with almost every meal.

Anyway we are trying our best to budget and make inexpensive but satisfying meals that get the most from our money so I figured I'd make a ginormous pot of chili and needed something to go along side it. I opened the pantry and saw an old tub of cornmeal on the shelf. Hmmm, waste not, want not right? I've never actually made cornbread from scratch before-I always use Jiffy mix in the box. Apparently, according to real Southern folk-that makes me a real sinner. What do you expect from a Yankee girl? We like bread or rolls with our dinner, not so much biscuits and cornbread.

Well, I found a very simple Sweet Cornbread recipe-only like 5 ingredients. Quick and inexpensive. I also had a container of leftover raw baby corn in the fridge that I decided to use to dress it up a little bit.

Not only that but I even used (GAG!) powdered non-fat milk to make it. I have a GIANT box of powdered milk in the pantry that I use only to make homemade protein bars. Have you ever tasted powdered milk? Don't its disgusting. It worked in this recipe though.

I actually really liked this. It was nice and sweet-especially around the edges. The addition of the corn spears added something extra that I really liked too. I think if you want it even sweeter this might taste great piping hot with some honey drizzled over top. The boys gobbled it up too. They both wanted seconds.

Here's my modified recipe:

Purrty Sweet Cornbread

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk (again I used nonfat)
1/3 cup butter flavored Crisco

5-10 baby corn spears

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray. Stir together dry ingredients. Add egg and milk and mix together. Cream in Crisco with a fork. Pour into cake pan and press about 5 spears into batter so they are completely covered. Lay the other 5 on top in a sort of sunburst pattern. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Garden Update: Three Months In

2008-06-14T15:30:00.012-04:00

Check out my garden! What progress! As you can see the plants are still NOT in the ground. Its just been too hot to even attempt to transplant them. Matter of fact the heat has really done a number on my plants. I have learned that spinach and peas prefer cooler temps.

These yellow flowers right here are the end to my fresh spinach. Apparently once they flower-you get no more viable edible foliage from the plant.

I moved the peas to a spot below the deck after they had already been exposed to a week of 95+ degree temps with full sun. The damage had already been done-because they are a rather sad lot right now. I took a closer look though and noticed some new sprouts coming up closer to the soil so maybe there is hope for them yet.

The broccoli, brussel sprouts and pepper plants are in love with the heat though. Look at all the new foliage on the broccoli and brussels and how thick there stems are getting!

They have a really long growing season and will be ready for harvest in the fall.

The peppers are finally forming buds! Unlike with the spinach this is a GREAT sign-that means beautiful peppers are right around the corner.

The beans are moving along slowly, I harvested a small bowl full of beans from the plants this morning. I think once they get in the ground they will really start producing large amounts of beans.

So I've learned a few things this past week:

-plant and harvest spinach early.

-get the plants in the ground so they can really produce and do it before it gets too hot.

-peas don't like the heat

-mature brussel sprout plants look like trees with nuts on them.

-my kid looks really cute in green...

Off Season Meal: Pumpkin Turkey Chili

2008-06-10T18:00:00.005-04:00

Pumpkin seems to be something people only like to use in the fall and winter months, so I refer to this as an off-season dish. I'm making it in the summer, because ya know-I'm all rebelllious and stuff...

Well then, really I think that the pumpkin in this chili almost lightens it up and makes it a more refreshing meal for this time of year. PLUS-there is not hot oven and there isn't a ton of standing over the stove to be done while preparing it. It really only takes about 15 -20 minutes to make this one.

Pumpkin Turkey Chili

1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 package ground turkey
1 small onion chopped
1 small green pepper chopped
1 can diced (I use no salt added) tomatoes
black pepper
chili powder
cayenne pepper
1-2 cloves minced garlic
cumin
kosher salt
1 can black beans drained and rinsed

Put a little olive oil in skillet and start cooking onion, green pepper and garlic...add ground turkey and brown. Drain off fat. Add black beans and cook another minute or so. Add pumpkin and tomatoes-stir and add spices as you like (to your own taste) I did not measure my spices-I just seasoned and kept tasting till I liked it. Cook until heated through.

CopyCat Recipe: Starbucks Shaken Black Tea Lemonde

2008-06-08T11:06:00.003-04:00

Its simply too hot down here in "Tha Dirty" right now to do much eating or cooking. With the heat index reading "Death Valley" the last thing I want to do is turn on the oven or stand over a gas stove and cook.

There have been lots of sandwiches and salads the last few days. And lots of COLD drinks. Since we've been trying to stay home and not waste gas and save little bits of money here and there I needed to find a way to duplicate my latest HOT weather obsession: Starbucks Shaken Black Tea Lemonade. Oh how I love that drink-but at $3-something a wop-it just doesn't make sense.

Its terribly easy to duplicate.

Homemade Starbucks Black Tea Lemonade

4 earl grey black tea bags
Lemonade (pre-made or make your own-I use the frozen concentrate to make mine to save time)
Ice cubes
Water

I use my drip coffeemaker to brew the tea. Instead of putting a coffee filter in the basket-I line the bottom of the basket with the tea bags. fill the coffee pot with water to about the ten cup line. Pour water into coffeemaker and begin brewing.

Fill a pitcher about half way with ice cubes. When tea is finished brewing-pour over ice cubes. I then pour lemonade to about the 6 -8 cups line in the coffee pot and pour that into pitcher. Stir and pour into glasses...add more or less lemonade and ice to suit your taste.

Foodie Blog Roll

2008-06-03T11:16:00.005-04:00

YAY! I've just been added to the Foodie Blog Roll! Go....ME! I'm truly excited about it. Seriously, though if you love food (like we all know I do) check it out either with this link:

http://www.foodieblogroll.com/

...OR its also over on the left sidebar of my blog. If you've got a food based blog you might want to consider applying to add yours to the blog roll as well. Its a great way to help drive traffic to your blog.

I've already been carousing and stumbled upon some delicious, creative and interesting new blogs like My Tasty Space doesn't her food look fabulous?

OR...Cake and Commerce-she has beautiful pictures of food and restaurants and whatever else you could want that deals with FOOD.

There's a ton more...I could go on forever, but I have to get back to browsing them myself. Enjoy!

Mango Lassi

2008-06-02T15:49:00.004-04:00

I love this drink! Its so easy to make and perfect to drink after a spicy meal. (there's no apple in it-I just put it in the picture for color)

Mango Lassi

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango pulp (if using frozen-let it thaw before use)

1/3 cup cold water

4 tablespoons honey or sugar

9-10 ice cubes.

Blend everything but the ice cubes in the blender until the sugar or honey is dissolved. Add the ice and blend until frothy!

Fat Free Strawberry Angel Cake

2008-06-01T21:30:00.003-04:00

I had a terrible sweet craving today and considered pouring a bag of chocolate chips into a jar of peanut butter and grabbing a spoon and going to town, but I was saved by the box of angel food cake mix in the pantry. I'm not a huge fan of the cake but it does always go nicely with fruit toppings and its light and FAT FREE.

I don't own a tube pan so I used two round cake pans instead. I threw some frozen strawberries into the blender and rough chopped them and then folded them into the prepared cake batter. Then I made a topping with some more frozen strawberries, sugar and a little bit of pure vanilla extract. Just dump it all into a small pan and heat and stir until the strawberries begin to break down and the sugar melts into a syrup. Let cool-it will thicken as it cools.

Served the cooled sliced cake with some of the strawberry topping spooned over top and if you like a spoonful of fat free whipped topping. It was really good. The boys-ate half the cake just today.

Today's Harvest and Demon Caterpillars

2008-06-01T10:24:00.009-04:00

What a bounty! Gee, maybe if JC himself will pay us a visit today and turn it into enough to feed the masses. Something tells me JC won't be knocking on my door anytime soon though so it will be enough to throw on a big salad for the family I guess. Hey, you work with whatcha got, right?

I also need JC to have a come by and deal with the demon caterpillars that have all but devoured one pot of spinach overnight! JERKS. What do they think this place is anyway-free sample day at the market? Caterpillars are cool and all-but they need to stay away from my humble little "garden". Red put them all in a little jar with the remnants of spinach leaves and is calling them his new pets.

So I cut off all the damaged spinach leaves with some gardening shears and here is what's left of the ravaged plants...

I had to add a new WT "trellis" for the pea plants so I could spread them out more. They were starting to choke each other out. As you can see, I still have yet to put anything in the ground. I'm such a scaredy cat and a procrastinator too. I do need to get these in the ground though, because I've got some herb sprouts started that will be needing some pots in a week or so. I did cilantro, mint, basil, dill and thyme.

I'm happy to see that I haven't killed anything completely yet. It was a close call for the spinach-but I caught it before the plant was completely destroyed. So far so good.

Salmon Patties with Succotash: Budget Friendly and Healthy

2008-05-29T20:17:00.003-04:00

In my efforts to make the perfect salmon patty I have gone through recipe after recipe with long lists of ingredients and when I finally settled on the perfect one I was kind of surprised because its really only three simple inexpensive ingredients.

~Canned Salmon

~Plain Bread Crumbs

~Eggs

That's it. That's all. No seasoning, nothing.

We like to dip them in wasabi mayo (YUM!) or hot pepper sauce when we eat them. I love them served with grits or baked mac n cheese and red beans and rice....BUT I'm really making an effort to stay away from pasta and cheese. The cheese hasn't been that difficult because it is just almost too expensive to buy at the grocery right now. Pasta is tough though. We were doing whole wheat pasta for awhile-but that's expensive and it still tends to make me hold weight. So, today I made a sort of succotash to go with the salmon and een without the extra carbs it was really filling.

Oh yeah, and check out that lovely spinach leaf in there! Straight out of the garden, baby!

Simple Salmon Patty

(makes 18-20 patties-enough for a meal, leftovers or throw some in the freezer to eat another day)

5 cans boneless skinless salmon in water

about 1 cup of plain bread crumbs (give or take)

2 eggs

Drain the cans of salmon and put them in bowl. Flake with a fork if needed. Crack two eggs into bowl and stir to coat. Add bread crumbs until there is a nice consistency and when you handle the salmon mixture it sticks together. Form 15-20 patties (depending on how big you prefer to make them) Heat a large skillet and add a couple of turns of olive oil. Add patties to pan and brown about 3-5 minutes each side. Remove to paper towel lined dish to soak up excess oil.

Succotash

1/2 bag frozen sweet corn

1 can red beans, drained and rinsed

1 small onion, chopped

1 small orange or red pepper, diced

cayenne pepper

dash of black pepper

dash of kosher salt

olive oil

Heat pan and add one turn of oilve oil. Add all ingredients to pan and sort of stir fry them until onions are translucent and beans begin to break open. (Add cayenne pepper until you reach the heat you desire)

Spinach!

2008-05-20T13:29:00.003-04:00

Grow Spinach, Its your birthday! that would make a lovely salad wouldn't it? Everything is growing pretty nicely now. I've got a few pea pods forming and have already pinched off some pole beans.

I really really need to get it all transplanted into a real garden though. I'm such a slacker. I got a cool new book called the New American Kitchen Garden that gives me a ton of information and I'm also using a handy dandy pdf guide from the Colorado Extension service on building a raised bed garden.

Lunch. Yum.

2008-05-20T09:55:00.003-04:00

Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Sammich

-Bread-wheat

-Chicken-Grill it with some chicken and rib rub

-Romaine Lettuce-break a leaf off the head and tear it in half-rinse it.

-Roma Tomato-slice it.

-Onion-slice it too.

-Pineapple-open the can. (Fresh pinepple would be better-but I'm po'. ie-"POOR")

-Stack it on bread.

-Add some kind of sauce if you want. Teriyaki, BBQ or even mayo would work well.

-Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

-Eat.

-Yum.

Birthday Flowers

2008-05-14T15:53:00.012-04:00

I have a thing for taking pictures of flowers-I'm definitely not a pro but I like to pretend I have some sort of skill. I wish I had a Rebel SLR with a macro lense. I just love the fine details of the inside of a flower.

These were part of a bouquet sent to me by a friend for my birthday-which just happens to be TODAY!

Old School Home Remedy: The Hot Toddy

2008-05-09T22:32:00.005-04:00

I know most people tend to think of colds and coughing in the winter months-but I'm prone to a Spring and Fall outbreak of bronchitis or some other nasty congested chest and cough plague. I'll be sick for a day or two and then feel better except for a horrible cough that likes to stick around for weeks afterwards. This wasn't something I dealt with as a child-its just another one of those things I like to blame on Georgia and its nasty smog polluted air and murderous pollen counts.

Anyway-I'm dealing with it right now, the cough can get so bad I've actually bruised my ribs and caused inflamation in the tissue surrounding my ribs. That my friends does NOT feel pleasant-so in an effort to combat the cough this year I'm taking it back, way back to the old school methods my momma use to use on me. Now I must say Chris Rock's famous 'Tussin does the job if you want to get some sleep, it will knock you right out (I swear by the children's 'Tussin-it works better than the adult version) but if you really want to kick that congestion out of your chest...

Its Hot Toddy time!

The recipe is really simple.

1. Juice two lemons into a glass microwaveable container ( I like to use my Pyrex measuring cups)

2. Add 1/4 cup honey to the mix (if you can get some local honey-that's even better)

3. Bring the lemon and honey to a boil in the microwave-probably about 1.5 minutes.

4. Set the honey and lemon aside to cool until warm.

5. Brew a cup of tea-I like to use wellness echinachea tea-but any kind will do.

6. pour the warm honey lemon mixture into the tea.

7. Add about a 1/4 cup of brandy or whiskey.

8. Stir and then add a dash of cayenne pepper.

9. Drink.

Ahh..relief. something about the lemon and honey being brought to a boil chemically changes it and gives it some healing properties. Either that or the whiskey gets you just drunk enough to forget the annoying cough all together.

1979 and Rhubarb Pie

2008-05-04T18:41:00.009-04:00

While browsing blogs on the Internet this afternoon, I came across one that had a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. You know how somethings just transport you back to a place and time or some fond happy memory? Well Rhubarb is just one of those things for me. Takes me right back to 1979. Takes me back to a little farm on County Rd 8 in Arlington Ohio where one of my favorite cousins lived. Where we could run through corn fields and swim in the pond, ride on the tractor, collect peacock feathers and love on the abundance of kittens living in the old barn.

Check me out-I'm the one on the far left that looks like a boy with a really bad haircut. that's 1979 all the way right there...I'm somewhat surprised there isn't some random patch sewn on the knee of my pants. My Mom was an avid user of those little patches.

Anyway, we would visit my cousins Chris and Kim and Aunt Marge and Uncle Floyd in the summers and fall when I was young. We'd play "kick the can" and eat wild berries and explore the land without a care in the world.

Aunt Marge made two dishes from scratch that have stayed etched in my mind for all of these years-homemade baked macaroni and cheese and strawberry rhubarb pie. They were both heavenly. I've never had a mac and cheese like it. It was very rustic-not fancy-no added flavors. I've come to find out later that fresh goats milk cheese was part of the recipe.

OK, OK back to the real reason for the blog...rhubarb! Aunt Marge's Rhubarb Pie was so frackin' good! Most people have a sweet tooth-but I tend to think I have more of a "tart" tooth. I love tart flavors and rhubarb is most definitely tart. Click HERE for the recipe I found that inspired this blog-it is of course, complete with lots of wonderful pics.

I know I just said I was going to plant tomatoes and sunflowers-but I think I'm adding Rhubarb to the garden as well. I am seriously going to drive my husband insane-he's anti-plant. I think he's just tolerating all of this planting right now because he sees it is something that is bringing me joy.

THIS ARTICLE tells me rhubarb doesn't do well in the south-its apparently a cold climate crop. It does tell me how to grow it as an annual though. I guess I will be waiting until around August or so to start my Rhubarb plants. That's kind of disheartening-but oh well-if I get a good enough crop I can always freeze it for later use.

I'm off to learn more about my beloved Rhubarb and humming 1979 by The Smashing Pumpkins all the way... (Great song!)

Simply Saturday

2008-05-03T14:36:00.011-04:00

Ahhh...

That's about the best way to describe today. Its rainy and cool and...quiet. The husband is at work, the child is napping and I could be doing something productive and domestic like vacuuming mattresses, washing baseboards, or tackling this mountain:

But nooooo, you know because I so enjoy being rebellious and all, I have instead opted to produce this random meaningless blog and indulge in some of this:

You're with me now, right? I threw some Boney James on for background noise and voila! Zen hath arrived.

Check out the present my sweet boy gave me this morning-he wrapped it himself with a Spaghetti Warehouse kids menu coloring page. He's apparently frugally innovative like his momma!

Here's what was inside:

A jewel! The boy is good, right? Way to win over a ladies heart with giant jewels! Oh, he threw the pirate ship in because as he told me "its a treasure!" This kid is smart y'all!

What else, what else? Oh yes, scrapping. I scrapped recently and here's what I came up with:

Nothing spectacular, my creative juices weren't really flowing that day. It took hours just to get to a starting point. I think I'm going to start working on some 8x8 pages. I've got plenty of single pictures that I'd like to highlight on smaller pages.

Finally, to just be completely random and out there...check out my sparkly gold flip flops! Don't focus on the feet, I'm in desperate need of a pedicure.

Garden Update: Week 6

2008-05-03T14:03:00.012-04:00

Its rainy and cool outside (I know! I'm completely abnormal because I tend to prefer the rain to sun). I just love the way everything becomes more vibrant and alive after a spring rain. The plants seem to love it-check em out! They are coming along nicely, no?

The winds kicked up a bit today so I added some bamboo skewers for support to the beans just to be safe-I just used some twist-ties to loosely hold them to the skewer. There is probably some product at the nursery specifically made to tie and support plants but ya know I work with what I've got. SHOOT-check out the old baby gate I'm using as a trellis for the pea plants to attach to and the rubber maid bin I'm using as a planter. I'm not so sure if I'm being frugally innovative and creative or plain trashy anymore...

Hmmm. Well the 88cent price tags ARE still attached to the green pots so, me thinks I might be leaning more towards the trashy. Oh well, it is what it is.

The beans have also begun to flower! Ooh PRETTY!

The other plants are slow and steady with the exception of one pot of pea plants. I had run out of organic soil when I was potting these and got the bright (insert rolling eyes here) idea to use some old peat moss type potting stuff I had in the garage from the year before. So its rather telling that this is the only pot of plants that is not flourishing-its either don't use peat moss-or don't use old peat moss or both. I added some plant food to the mix today-we'll see if it brings these plants some life back.

They are a rather sad lot, no?

I really NEED to get out into the backyard and prepare the area for the official garden. I'm actually really apprehensive about putting them into the actual ground though. Its as though somehow the deck high above the ground below is a safe haven for them.

Stay tuned for the tomato plants I will be adding to the mix next week, sunflowers, and oh I've been told coffee cans make interesting planters too. So maybe I will have to force myself to drink more coffee just to have some fun cans to use as planters? Maybe I'll do some flowers in those, and paint them brick red? Oh the excitement of it all! I know you can hardly stand it, can you?

Wilted Spinach with Edamame, Garlic and Tomatoes

2008-05-01T09:21:00.005-04:00

I threw this together last night on a whim. I was going to throw some spinach tomatoes and feta together, but the Edamame in the freezer has been calling my name for the last week so I figured I'd see what I could do with it.

I first discovered Edamame at the Ruby Tuesday's salad bar. For awhile I thought it was fava beans, but later was informed it was actually Edamame or soybeans. I love it so much I actually tried to purchase the entire supply of it from Ruby Tuesday's and have been known to go in and buy salad bar to go and simply fill up my Styrofoam take out container with Edamame!

Its got such a nice fresh from the garden taste and it has about 4g of fiber in a serving and 10 whopping grams of protein!

So here is my attempt at a recipe ingredient list and instructions, since I didn't exactly measure anything:

1/2 half bag frozen shelled edamame (fresh would probably work just as well too)

1 bag fresh pre-washed baby spinach

3 cloves minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 can no salt added diced tomatoes

kosher salt

1 cup uncooked couscous (I used a sundried tomato, spinach and whole wheat blend)

For the couscous:

1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. I like to add just a touch of olive oil to the water. ( you can use butter and a touch of salt if you would like as well)

2. Stir in couscous and then cover and remove from heat.

3. Let stand about five minutes and then fluff with fork.

Spinach:

1. Heat large pan on medium-high heat and add olive oil.

2. Add spinach and stir around until it begins to wilt. Add kosher salt, edamame and garlic and continue cooking until all of the spinach is wilted, and edamame is thawed and bright green.

3. Add diced tomatoes and stir until heated through.

4. Serve on top of couscous.

Ah, I also have some chicken there in the picture, don't I? That was pretty easy and tasty too. I had some thin sliced boneless skinless breasts and simply put some chicken and rib rub on them and drizzled them with a bit of olive oil and then grilled them on an indoor grill.

Spring...In Full Bloom

2008-04-25T15:48:00.006-04:00

I've been taking more walks around the park during down time at the office to keep myself away from the computer and off my ever-widening behind lately. I've made sure to bring the trusty Canon along for my walks because you know I'm all about the visuals. I've been able to catch some really nice shots of the flowers in full bloom.
The park is gorgeous right now and the Knockout Roses we have planted in front of the building are out of control! these things just don't stop growing. I'm not really a rose girl but the colors on these things are so vivid they sort of exude happiness, and ya know I LURVE to share my moods with y'all.
So, here ya go-happy flowers just for you!

The Garden: 30 Days In

2008-04-22T19:17:00.007-04:00

Over the weekend the garden passed the thirty day mark and so far things are going well. The Spinach, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts and Peppers are all still in the starter tray. I have transplanted the pole beans and snap peas into pots. We've had an abundance of sun over the last few days which is really helping to mature the plants. I usually water them in the early morning and a bit more in the early evening. Its not good to water at night in our humid climate because it can lead to mold and fungus attacking the plants.

I used some bamboo skewers to help give the peas some support, they have been sprouting little vines like crazy trying to find something to latch onto.

I had pinched back the original leaves on the bean plants and within a couple of days they had doubled the amount of leaves.

Brand New Obsession

2008-04-22T17:51:00.005-04:00

Decoupage Collage! Like painting and scrapbooking in one! Messy scrapping. I love it. OK, maybe I'm strange but I love peeling the dried polymer off of my fingers afterwards too.

Today I spent the day doing forced fun at work and it turned out to actually be FANTASTIC. We did these collages at the art place. Love it, because ya know crafts are my therapy.

Anyway, the project is really simple and you only need a few supplies: a canvas (the one I used was 8x8), acrylic polymer, paint, and whatever else you want to add. things like concert tickets, newspaper articles, photos, buttons, marbles, old jewelery, ribbon, papers, sheet music, old keys...anything!

First you paint the canvas, then allow it to dry. You can use a hair dryer on low setting to help speed the process. then you put polymer on the back of the items you want to include in your collage and press them onto the canvas. Layer away, and as you place items on your canvas paint more polymer on top of them to help seal them onto the canvas. the polymer will dry clear.
Here's my first attempt at decoupage collage:

I was thinking about buying a bunch of picture frames and covering one wall in our home office with pictures, but now I think I'm going to make a sort of border around the room with these collages.

I found the supplies for really cheap here: http://www.dickblick.com/

This Old House

2008-04-21T19:41:00.004-04:00

I love this old house. Its located within a block of the town square right on the main street. Its nestled amongst other old homes that have had owners that have resisted the trend of remodeling and updating. All of the houses on the road have massive front porches with ceiling fans and rocking chairs. The elementary school is on the same road and its the same road that the town parades take place.

If I have to live in a suburb-can I live in a house like this? Its not fancy its not big. Its just what I need. Its got potential.

It would be so nice to have big giant potted topiary style trees on that porch and black wicker furniture with thick comfy cushions. I could walk to the used bookstore or the little java joint on the weekend. I could watch a parade from my own driveway. I could walk Red to school in the morning and still make it to work on time. I could sit on that porch sipping on an icy glass of honey lemonade and paint or scrapbook or read books to myself or Red. I could blog on that front porch! We could go to the Mexican Restaurante and have salsa and chips and sangria and get a little tipsy and walk home safely!

Did I forget to mention its for sale? Yeah, its for sale. Ahhhh if only. Its just not in the deck of cards right now, but eh-one can dream right?

I bet it has wood floors too. Doesn't it just scream "I HAVE GORGEOUS WOOD FLOORS!"?

Domestic Violence

2008-04-12T06:20:00.004-04:00

I had to put out a restraining order against Red's basketball hoop yesterday. For reasons unbeknown est to me, this angry hoop felt the need to clobber my seedlings! The audacity. Imagine my surprise as I arrive home and look outside to see this deranged hoop lying on top of my feeble seedlings just suffocating them ruthlessly. The hoop wouldn't stop its attack on the seedlings so I was able to snap this pic as evidence for the cops.

Horrific to see that kind of violence isn't it? I had to take the little guys inside. Sadly, some of them didn't make it. I won't allow this to happen again. The hoop was hauled off to the basement on charges of domestic violence.

I did have to take all of the plants in yesterday as the winds were a bit strong.

I had to reposition the brussel spouts and spinach because they were becoming a tangled mess. I also pinched off the initial leaves from the pole bean plants to allow them to begin to branch off and get really leafy. I'll put them all back out on the deck today, for more sun time.

The Peas are beginning to develop the little vines and they have started curling around each other. I'll probably get something to use as little stakes for them to attach to for support.

A Georgia Springtime Classic

2008-04-10T22:41:00.006-04:00

Yep, its that time of year again. The time of year when Georgia looks as though it suffered a nuclear attack and bright yellow-green radioactive fallout is covering everything. You can't open your windows or it will be covering everything in your house. Its pointless to wash your car and whenever you have to go outside for anything you come back in feeling like you've got a gritty film covering you.

It will be nice to get some good soaking rains to wash away this mess.

Mud-licious and Puddle Wonderful?

2008-04-07T18:35:00.001-04:00

"The world is mud-licious and puddle wonderful!" -E.E.Cummings

After having such a drought the last couple of years in Georgia I'd have to say I agree with that statement. Its nice to have mud and puddles again instead of dry dusty cracked earth. We hope the rains will keep coming. We desperately need it in this part of the country.

All the mud is fun for the kids too. Kids love the mud, its squishy and messy. When you grow up into an adult you do NOT (normally-I know there's an exception to every rule) love mud. Mud becomes one of those things you DON'T want on your clothes, body, or hair-that is unless you've paid for that sort of thing at a swanky day spa. When your child insists on splashing in the puddles on your way into a store or running through the mud before you take them into school-it does nothing but make you want to scold them for getting dirty. We parents take the joy out of everything do we not?

Well, when I walked in to Red's pre-school this afternoon, the kids were all out playing in the yard around back. They were in the far back corner and I couldn't see Red right off the bat. The teacher walked up to me and you could tell she was nervous as she started to tell me, "Um do you see that big mud puddle right there?"

I shook my head yes...and watched as her face grew bright red.

"Well, he just went over and dunked his head into it and then slid right in."

At first I did that parental sigh when you have just heard that your child did something wrong. Then I looked over and saw him-he was laughing and playing. His clothes were covered in mud-but his face was covered with a smile. So I laughed too. I mean we were going straight home. The clothes can be washed, and so can his body. That's what being a kid is all about. Experimenting, playing, laughing and getting messy along the way.

I think the teacher was relieved that I laughed about it. They must get sick to death of parents coming in expecting their kids to be shiney and spotless everytime they get picked up. Now, I wouldn't have wanted them to let him stay that way-that's what the change of clothes is for in his cubby box at school.

There's a muddy pair of shoes, socks, jeans, and shirt in the washer right now and there's a kid in the tub smiling thinking about the squishy mud he rolled around in today.

grow.food.love?

2008-04-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

When I first started this blog, oh about 4 long days ago...I thought it was going to just be a blog tracking the progress of my first REAL attempt at a vegetable garden. Thus the name "grow.food.love." As you see though, I've already thrown a wrench in that plan when I shared the fabulous Honey Nut Chicken recipe. It was too good NOT to share. At first I thought, well that doesn't even go-but ah-ha! the whole "food" being in the title was my "in" for that entry.

Well today I've got a funny (well I think its funny) story about my son that I want to share and of course pics to go with it. Its almost a requirement for me that a blog include pictures. Sounds like a first grader wanting to know where the books with all of the pictures are at right? I want to see what you are writing about and compare it to what I've already got pictured in my mind-or build a story around the picture(s) you've shared.

So anyway, I can include the funny story about my son-because I LOVE him and he is a child that is GROWing. I have decided that "grow.food.love." can really encompass anything and everything in my life. I can write about all the things I love, the people I love, the way I love and want to be loved. I can write about growing and garden, my child, myself, my relationship, my mind, skills, etc, etc...you see? The list can just go on and on. So the basis of the blog is going to be around this little vegetable garden but I'll always throw in random passages about the other goings on in my life. After all, the purpose to this thing called life really boils down to those three words "grow.food.love." anyway, right?

Baked Honey Nut Chicken

2008-04-05T11:01:00.002-04:00

This is delicious. I modified it just a bit and made it with Panko instead of regular plain bread crumbs. Well, I think I used a little more butter to-but it was Blue Bonnet LIGHT margarine.

Baked Honey Nut Chicken

2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cup dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
6 boneless skinless chicken breasts- sliced into smaller pieces
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a bowl, beat eggs and honey together until thoroughly blended. In a separate bowl, toss together pecans, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.
Dip chicken pieces in egg and honey mixture, then dredge in pecan mixture, coating thoroughly. Arrange chicken side by side in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Drizzle melted butter evenly over chicken.
Bake approximately 40 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink, and juices run clear.

YUM! We are eating it plain, but I think it would taste great with a honey mustard or even a sweet BBQ sauce as a dip.

The Peppers Are Coming! The Peppers Are Coming!

2008-04-04T19:11:00.001-04:00

Yes, Yes! I know! The excitement of it is almost too much to handle right? Really though, I was beginning to think those little peppers weren't going to cooperate-but today those seedlings are going strong. There are at least two sprouts in each pod and they look like they have potential. Not bad for a $.30 seed pack.

The broccoli on the other hand is starting to look a little iffy. My husband had a heavy jiu-jitsu gi hanging to dry directly above the tray and I went to move it and dropped it right on the broccoli sprouts. This of course will be his fault because he chose to hang the thing in that particular spot, right?

We had a large amount of rain today and they are calling for more tomorrow. I might bring the pole beans in tonight to keep them from getting water logged. The bin they are in right now has no drainage so I don't want to drown them out. What they need more than anything right now is sun and lots of it. If we get a nice sunny day this weekend they will definitely start producing more leaves.